Future of britain’s railways

[CICERO55]

What future railway structure would you like to see in this country?

 

[HH]

None of the above?

 

[Ash Bridge]

Second option for me, although closely followed by the first.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

A mix of the first two but with better centralized control and zero interference from government who know no more about running a railway than my pet cat.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

None of the above?

Totally sympathise with this. However it is perhaps reasonable to at least attempt to provide an alternative not suggested in the poll. Re-nationalisation is currently very popular but having lived through the BR era in its many guises I cannot support the two BR options offered. On the other hand a single national organisation with some things "devolved" to local level (like station facility management) and others very much centralised (like timetabling of long-distance services to act as a skeleton for everything else) could have some merit as opposed to all-powerful Regions or Sectors who have little concern for anything not in their "empire". A difficult balancing act but worth considering.

 

[HH]

Totally sympathise with this. However it is perhaps reasonable to at least attempt to provide an alternative not suggested in the poll. Re-nationalisation is currently very popular but having lived through the BR era in its many guises I cannot support the two BR options offered. On the other hand a single national organisation with some things "devolved" to local level (like station facility management) and others very much centralised (like timetabling of long-distance services to act as a skeleton for everything else) could have some merit as opposed to all-powerful Regions or Sectors who have little concern for anything not in their "empire". A difficult balancing act but worth considering.

I'm going to be honest and say that I don't know what form it should take, but things do need to change and I am very much against trying to re-create the past; the world has moved on. There undoubtedly is no perfect solution anyway.

So what I would like is some measure of local control where appropriate; some level of competition on InterCity services; and central control over key commuter services, rather like TfL exercise in London.

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

I'm going to be honest and say that I don't know what form it should take, but things do need to change and I am very much against trying to re-create the past; the world has moved on. There undoubtedly is no perfect solution anyway.

So what I would like is some measure of local control where appropriate; some level of competition on InterCity services; and central control over key commuter services, rather like TfL exercise in London.

If only more people would accept this!

 

[Hetlana]

I want a system where our intercity routes are solely open-access (no franchises) so that we can have some exciting airline style competition on them.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I want a system where our intercity routes are solely open-access (no franchises) so that we can have some exciting airline style competition on them.

I don't. I want to see a recognition that the competitor is the car, not the other rail operators, and a system that is commercially minded enough to make significant inroads into that rather than petty in-fighting.

The ultimate goal should be and is - why would you want to drive when you can go by train?

 

[Esker-pades]

I want a system where our intercity routes are solely open-access (no franchises) so that we can have some exciting airline style competition on them.

Great. Where do you get the paths from? Genuine competition requres a reasonable frequency on both services. Otherwise most people will just choose the operator that departs/arrives at the time that they want, not because "Ooooooo! Great Anglia South Bank Rail is better than North London Suffolk Trains!" (for example).

The competitor has to be rail v other forms of transport. I know a lot of students who live in the South East and fly up to Edinburgh. I get the train out of a form of loyalty, because I detest some aspetcs of air travel, and because I am an environmentalist. If I was purely money drive, I would get the plane. Some of my rail enthusiast friends have gone from travelling by train to using their car after passing their driving exams for economic reasons.

Train is never the only option. Whereas a long-haul flight only has competition from other operator's long-haul flights, a long-distance train journey has competition from short-haul flights whilst a commuter/short distance train journey has competition from cars and buses. Deal with external competiting first before worrying about "exciting" internal competition.

 

[Bevan Price]

None of the above options.
A single national passenger operator, with a fully integrated network of connecting services. Delay compensation to be scrapped, and holding connections for late running trains should (within reason) be the normal policy. As suggested above, a major requirement would be a pricing policy designed to get a lot more people out of cars, rather than to make money for private operators (or the treasury); this would require more government money, which would come from a new "environment protection" tax - applied to items which damage or pollute the environment.

Same organisation should control the infrastructure, but with a mandate to provide adequate paths for freight operations. Freight could probably remain with independent operators.

 

[martinsh]

A mix of the first two but with better centralized control and zero interference from government who know no more about running a railway than my pet cat.

is your pet cat called Beeching or Grayling ?

 

[Kite159]

Delay compensation to be scrapped

So "BR MK2" can get away with cancelling services without the worry of paying out for messing around with customers journeys.

That will convert road users to ditch to an uncountable monopoly...

 

[B&I]

I want a system where our intercity routes are solely open-access (no franchises) so that we can have some exciting airline style competition on them.

Can you provide a single example of anywhere where this works, or is neoliberal ideology more important than a functioning transport system ?

 

[Esker-pades]

Can you provide a single example of anywhere where this works, or is neoliberal ideology more important than a functioning transport system ?

You have to remember that the market is an all-seeing benevolent deity. We should all prostrate ourselves before it multiple times a day.

 

[B&I]

You have to remember that the market is an all-seeing benevolent deity. We should all prostrate ourselves before it multiple times a day.

I find myself prostate before the market frequently, though not out of choice

 

[JayDee]

Picking on the airline aspect a tiny bit... Changing ticketing on long haul trains to encourage pre booking by making them cheaper could be an option.

Another would be a national oyster/mango card system, letting you use the public transport of your choice far easier than present faffing around. Or an app linked to your contactless card showing you bought your ticket.

I'd see incremental change and improvement as a priority rather than wholesale system changes. Our railways are still dealing with a lot of historic underinvestment that is only just being fixed.