Removing open access operators from the network by 2029

[43096]

I'm sure that would work well. Or it might until something happened, like a recession or Covid or a terrorist attack or an incident similar to Hatfield, and they all went bust leaving no rail service at all or the state to pick up the pieces and bill.

So no different to Covid, where the TOCs would have gone bust, leaving the state to pick up the pieces and the bill.

 

[Dr Hoo]

I'm sure that would work well. Or it might until something happened, like a recession or Covid or a terrorist attack or an incident similar to Hatfield, and they all went bust leaving no rail service at all or the state to pick up the pieces and bill.

Well, Hull Trains went through Hatfield in 2000, the 2008 financial crash and Covid yet have progressively moved from 3-car 100mph DMUs, through 4-car 125mph DEMUs to 5-car Class 80x bi-modes, now often seen to be running in 10-car formations. Still wanting to expand.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Hull Trains run a handful of services they have specifically chosen. They don't run a full service including services at times of day people rarely travel and I think both HT and GC gradually increased the number of services they ran post-Covid and didn't just immediately restore a full service. There is also a very big difference between surviving a shock when you only employ a few dozen people than if you employed a few hundred or thousand. You only have to look at Virgin West Coast and CrossCountry to see how full OA would turn out.

 

[notadriver]

I'm sure that would work well. Or it might until something happened, like a recession or Covid or a terrorist attack or an incident similar to Hatfield, and they all went bust leaving no rail service at all or the state to pick up the pieces and bill.

Better still they would close down the railways a la V for Vendetta and all travel will be by electric car or bus.