The perception of railway staff in my area (as far as I remember) was that as well being about privatisation it was about spending silly money on an image rather than functional aspects of the railway.
"We've now got a railway that is carrying a lot more passengers"
Passengers which may have came to BR if it had never been privatised. They certainly aren't using the railways for the cheap fares. In addition 20 out of 27 of the current franchises are foreign owned so any profits simply go out of the country.
"Do I want to go back to the shabby run down railway of the late 70's & early 80's where the governments of the day (both Tory & Labour) starved the industry of investment? No, I do not!"
The railway where the railway staff felt like brothers whether they worked at Bognor Regis or Thurso ? Where services such as overnight trains were run because they were useful to the public rather than fulfilling the requirements of a franchise application ? The railway which the right wing media whinged about though they seem to have little good to say about its replacement ? The railway which has seen numerous fatal accidents due to the split between track maintenance and operating ?
Yes , lovely.
Personally, I think the best structure the railway ever had was at the time of B.R. sectorisation under the first Bob Reid. As I said earlier, lines were re-opening, electrification was happening (at least in the South East), and the cost to the Treasury was much less than now in real terms.
Your point about foreign-owned franchises is correct: we've replaced a British state railway with a Dutch/German/French state railway. Daft. Certain sections of the right-wing media will always hate the railway whoever owns it: the key is in the name; it's public transport, not private.
You mention the lack of cheap fares. Over half of available fares (not the cheapest Advance fares) are set by the
state. The annual pecentage increase is set by the
state.
Fatal accidents?: not a single passenger has died in the last 8 years, making us the safest railway in Europe. And rail is by far the safest form of land transport - much safer than going by car.
You mention track maintainance: it's owned by the
state, as is all of Network Rail, which represents over half of the railway industry. All the stations, all the tracks, all the signalling: all owned by the
state.
In fact much of what happens on the railway today is decided by civil servants at the DfT -the
state- investment, fares levels as above, setting timetables and frequencies, awarding franchises, new stations etc. etc. There is much more control by the
state now than there ever was in B.R. days!
But I'm way of topic on this thread which is supposed to be about railway re-openings so I'm going to get my coat and say no more on the matter!
