Railways under Theresa May administration

[HH]

I guess those that thought it was serious have never been to Southminster...

 

[najaB]

Southendnewsnetwork.com is famously a satirical/joke/fake news website.

I thought it was, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between delusion and finely crafted parody.

 

[Robertj21a]

Owen Smith has now said he will re-nationalise the railways if he is elected so it looks like Labour will make re-nationalisation a policy of the next election.

Don't fool though for the garbage that Labour call for as when the Virgin Trains fiasco in 2012 Labour called for the government to re-nationalise the railways but at the 2015 election they didn't make it a policy. Also Labour said in the 90s that if they were ever elected they would re-nationalise the railways but after 13 years they didn't.

It would be nice though if the Labour Party didn't use the railways as a bargaining chip and had a decent railway policy rather than some populist thing that they won't ever do.

Not really sure that anyone needs to think very much about whatever Labour wants to do, they've got decades out in the wilderness before there's any chance of them winning a General Election.

 

[thenorthern]

Not really sure that anyone needs to think very much about whatever Labour wants to do, they've got decades out in the wilderness before there's any chance of them winning a General Election.

Problem is Nathan who commutes on a pacer train from Gargrave to Leeds every day that is being massively subsidised by the taxpayer thinks that it will mean his train will get better if the railways were brought back into public ownership as he is paying for Mr. Arriva's new Rolls Royce at the moment.

In other words people may fall for the trash Labour say about re-nationalising the railways whenever the Conservatives are in power despite not doing it when they were in power for 13 years when they said they would in 1993.

 

[Phil.]

Labour will never re-nationalise the railways.
1 They'll never be in power in the forseable future so won't have the opportunity.
2 When they were in power and had the opportunity - despite thicko fatty Prescot stating that they would, they didn't.
It's not going to happen.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Labour will never re-nationalise the railways.
1 They'll never be in power in the forseable future so won't have the opportunity.
2 When they were in power and had the opportunity - despite thicko fatty Prescot stating that they would, they didn't.
It's not going to happen.

They just parrot the word "renationalisation" but have no idea what it means.
A bit like Brexit.
They never explain what happens to freight, rolling stock, open access, HS1/2/3, Heathrow Express, Eurostar, devolution etc.
The world is different to how it was in 1994.

Newsnight had 3 Labour MPs on last night, one of them being Lilian Greenwood who was the shadow Transport Sec before the reshuffle.
They all parroted rail renationalisation as the one policy all factions of the party agreed on (plus protecting the NHS).
Rail is doomed to be like steel was in the 1960/70s - politicised and in and out of privatisation, to the total detriment of the industry.

 

[jon0844]

Do they need to understand it? Or do they actually understand that the general public doesn't understand it, and the general public generally want it.

In which case Labour DOES understand it. It understands that you tell people you'll do what they think they want.

But would Joe Public actually vote for a party based on this issue? When holding a pencil over the ballot paper, will bringing back British Rail be high on their list?

It would probably be wise for Labour not to make it a key election pledge. It might even backfire if by the time of the next election (assuming we don't have one sooner) all the new rolling stock and infrastructure upgrades actually make rail travel more pleasant. 2019-2020 will be quite different for a lot of people.

 

[physics34]

Anyone hear anything about that Peter Wilkinson fella (the DfT guy who said he was going to war with drivers).? He was meant to have a hearing of some kind yesterday.

 

[Domh245]

Do they need to understand it? Or do they actually understand that the general public doesn't understand it, and the general public generally want it.

In which case Labour DOES understand it. It understands that you tell people you'll do what they think they want.

But would Joe Public actually vote for a party based on this issue? When holding a pencil over the ballot paper, will bringing back British Rail be high on their list?

It would probably be wise for Labour not to make it a key election pledge. It might even backfire if by the time of the next election (assuming we don't have one sooner) all the new rolling stock and infrastructure upgrades actually make rail travel more pleasant. 2019-2020 will be quite different for a lot of people.

Looking at a YouGov poll from prior to the 2015 General Election, Transport was the bottom of the pile

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Anyone hear anything about that Peter Wilkinson fella (the DfT guy who said he was going to war with drivers).? He was meant to have a hearing of some kind yesterday.

It's tomorrow: http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...2015/improving-the-rail-passenger-experience/

Next meeting(s)
20 July 2016 4:05 pm

Oral Evidence Session
Improving rail passenger experience

Witness(es)
Paul Maynard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Department for Transport
Bernadette Kelly CB, Director General, Rail Group, Department for Transport
Peter Wilkinson, Managing Director, Passenger Services, Department for Transport

Location
Room 8, Palace of Westminster

First outing for Paul Maynard as Rail Minister.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I thought it was, but sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between delusion and finely crafted parody.

Unlike the likes of the Daily Mash, its articles I find are too close to being plausible to be funny.

 

[physics34]

It's tomorrow: http://www.parliament.uk/business/c...2015/improving-the-rail-passenger-experience/


First outing for Paul Maynard as Rail Minister.

OK cheers. I thought he was getting some kind of ticking off??

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

OK cheers. I thought he was getting some kind of ticking off??

It will be like the session with RMT and GTR last time.
I doubt we will learn much, especially with a new rail minister himself learning the brief.
The investigation was set up before Southern went wrong, and isn't really about franchise performance, as you can see from the terms of reference.

 

[thenorthern]

Given that George Osbourne's constituency was Tatton I think there will be less of an emphasis on a Northern Powerhouse under Theresa May.

 

[HH]

Given that George Osbourne's constituency was Tatton I think there will be less of an emphasis on a Northern Powerhouse under Theresa May.

I think you'll find that GO's constituency is still Tatton...

 

[snowball]

A new "Northern Powerhouse minister" was appointed on Monday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36825228

 

[Mikey C]

After the large numbers of Brexit votes in the North of England, many expressing dissatisfaction with the way they've been treated, I'd have thought that the Northern Powerhouse principle would become an even higher priority now...

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Just to round off the DfT appointments:

Chris Grayling (Epsom) is Secretary of State

There are 4 Under-Secretaries:
Paul Maynard (Blackpool) - Rail
Andrew Jones (Harrogate) - HS2 and devolution inc Northern Powerhouse
John Heyes* (South Holland) - Roads, Maritime and Freight
Lord Ahmed - London inc Crossrail 1 and 2, Aviation

* Minister of State, so senior to the others