Three rail firms to be renationalised next year

[Dr Murdoch]

I'm surprised this hasn't generated a thread: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ceqlnrgjr79o

I've suffered using South Western Trains and formally South West Trains for as long as I can remember, but I'm finding it difficult to believe that the service will improve as a result of renationalisation, I hope i'm wrong...

[smifffymoto]

Service won’t improve but the cost to the tax payer will be excused by those involved as renationalising was needed to improve the service to the public.

[swisstoni]

How will the price be established?
Can’t the companies say ‘ok, that will be a billionty pounds please?’

[KTF]

£150M a year 'savings' in fees doesn't seem that much to me in the grand scheme of running a railway.

Plenty of people will be getting out their rose tinted glasses and reminiscing about 'good old' British Rail though. Except those who were unfortunate enough to have to use them every day that is...

[Mabbs9]

The new Transport Sec on R4 this morning was pretty confident of the improvements. They won't have to pay the management fee so that will make it all cheap to run apparently so it'll be excellent. A relief for all I'm sure.

[normalbloke]

How does Network Rail ( or whoever they are called now) fit into all this? They have the be THE biggest black hole of wasted money that has ever existed.

[alangla]

Mabbs9 said:

The new Transport Sec on R4 this morning was pretty confident of the improvements. They won't have to pay the management fee so that will make it all cheap to run apparently so it'll be excellent. A relief for all I'm sure.

Because Northern Rail has been such a success in public ownership. Here’s what last Sunday looked like in Blackpool https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/g...

And Liverpool
https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/g...

[Sargeant Orange]

Having tried and failed to catch three overcrowded trains in the past few weeks, I fail to see how things can be much worse under national control. Maybe that's optimistic though.

I imagine union bosses are already getting their pencil sharpeners out however.

[Mr Penguin]

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

[alangla]

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

The sensible thing would be to produce a harmonised pay & terms structure to stop companies poaching staff from each other, they could also have a smaller number of training schools churning out trained staff (especially drivers) more efficiently.

I don’t hold out much hope though, Northern apparently still have staff members doing the same job on different rates & different terms based on which private company ran their depot 20 odd years ago, despite being one company since 2004 and nationalised since 2020.

[119]

What could possibly go wrong?

[biggles330d]

swisstoni said:

How will the price be established?
Can’t the companies say ‘ok, that will be a billionty pounds please?’

It's a franchise / service contract that will expire. They'll just hand it back.

Based on Scotrail, LNER, Northern and TPE (all already in public operation) I very much doubt you'll see any tangible improvements in quality, performance, or reduced ticket prices. The Treasury will still ultimately hold the purse strings as they always have.

[biggles330d]

alangla said:

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

The sensible thing would be to produce a harmonised pay & terms structure... to stop companies poaching staff from each other, they could also have a smaller number of training schools churning out trained staff (especially drivers) more efficiently.

I don’t hold out much hope though, Northern apparently still have staff members doing the same job on different rates & different terms based on which private company ran their depot 20 odd years ago, despite being one company since 2004 and nationalised since 2020.

If the unions are involved, the only harmonisation will be upward. So an overall cost increase then.

[Skodillac]

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

What did the current private operators do differently to the previous nationalised operator?

Oh that's right, gouge public money and commuters for profit and fail to deliver decent services.

[Triumph Man]

119 said:

What could possibly go wrong?

The return of Pacers and First Gen DMUs? (Although they are slightly charming in their own way)

[alangla]

biggles330d said:

If the unions are involved, the only harmonisation will be upward. So an overall cost increase then.

Oh absolutely, but they could introduce some sort of new start contract for new entrants that included Sunday as a working day and could cut the pay for new drivers. Adjusting the legacy contracts would certainly attract a lot of union attention, especially if it was anything other than the best pay & best T&Cs

[swisstoni]

Skodillac said:

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

What did the current private operators do differently to the previous nationalised operator?

Oh that's right, gouge public money and commuters for profit and fail to deliver decent services.

Correct.
Against that you have to consider why British Rail was privatised in the first place.
Bad service (at least that’s a constant)
A large cost to the taxpayer.
Terrible labour relations leading to regular industrial action.
A desire (hope if you like) to have the whole thing run better by private enterprise.
A desire to put the whole mess at arms length.

[DeejRC]

Skodillac said:

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

What did the current private operators do differently to the previous nationalised operator?

Oh that's right, gouge public money and commuters for profit and fail to deliver decent services.

Didn’t half of them lose money??

[Skodillac]

DeejRC said:

Skodillac said:

Mr Penguin said:

What are nationalised operators going to do differently to the private operators that will lead to improvements?

What did the current private operators do differently to the previous nationalised operator?

Oh that's right, gouge public money and commuters for profit and fail to deliver decent services.

Didn’t half of them lose money??

Who cares, the execs are well paid and shareholders are happy.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/29/train-...

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/firstgroup-abelli...

[JagLover]

A relatively harmless measure to keep the unions happy.

Any remaining private element to the railways went during the pandemic and associated lockdown in any case.