Stossgebet
Member
The eu laws are no longer "in progress". They have been law for years. The process of compliance is taking the time.That's very true, but we are now more than 30 years from the directive and the 'liberalisation' of European rail is still a work in progress - somewhat different from the smash and grab operation performed in Great Britain between 1993-96!
But that's how a lot of eu law works. Do it slowly, and hope no one notices their national democracy has been superceded. From the 1991 directive, to the eu fourth railway package becoming law in 2019... that's a lot of time to make all the changes behind the scenes and out of sight of the travelling public and taxpayers, and leaving the final and most visible change to the end, after all the enabling laws and changes have been set up and solidified.
That the extremist pro eu john major government went all in on railway privatisation during his one term of government, does not change the fact that eu law prevented the renationalisation and verticle integration, in all the years since then, that brexit has now allowed us to do.
My concern going forwards, with regards how GBR is set up, and the formerly franchised operators are re-integrated, is that the current government could leave the door open to another easy privatisation, by not fully integrating the train operators. Afterall, by keeping open access and track access charging, they are chosing not to fully undo the tory and eu structure. And if the so called 'integrated business units' are not merged together, and don't achieve the efficiencies we all hope they do, then they can very easily be split up and tendered out again.