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Nationalising the rail is one of their targets. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/24/labour-promises-rail-nationalisation-within-five-years-of-comin

by dagurp 2y ago

Nationalising the rail is one of their targets. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/24/labour-promises-rail-nationalisation-within-five-years-of-coming-to-power https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/apr/24/labour-prom...

panick21_ 2y ago
Their program is pretty weak sauce to be honest. Not clear message of recreating BritishRail outright. They should go back to full uniform marketing strategy. NetworkRail should be rolled back into BritishRail. Their proposal is mostly adding more unneeded stuff, to the complex organizational chart. You don't need a 'Passenger Standards Authority', what you need is a public rail company that works for the public and has good funding. The rolling stock companies are literal cancers, the need to be burned down. In fact they should be disowned, the profit they made over the last decades should be removed from the price. They basically got a sweetheart deal and profit off the public since then. Its almost as fucking stupid as Chicago selling its own roads, almost. They also promised very little beyond that. Britain desperately needs a rolling electrification program and a rolling station access compliance program. No commitment to anything other then just 'nationalization' as a pretty abstract thing. There is no commitment to roll HS2 into BritishRail either.
- manfromchicago 2y ago
  How far back do you want to go? Even pre-privatization, there wasn't a "uniform strategy" - you had NSE, Inter-city, Provincial doing things up north, Scotrail in Scotland, not to mention the variety of PTEs who had their own schemes.
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    Its not about 'going back'. Its about being smart and doing what makes sense. Yes, before privatisation there wasnt a totally uniform strategy but BritishRail certaintly had strategy, both for the network and in term of branding and marketing different setvices. This would not just be a BritishRail thing. It would also involve the government, local governemnt and related transport services like TfL. The smart way of doing it is basically what Switzerland did in Bahn2000. You first look at your current network and timetable and think about what you would optimally want, make a priority list. Then you study and figure out what you can get for how much price. Then you make targeted infrastructure and service investments to achieve those goals, and of course you coordinate between all the different stack holders. In Switzerland you also dont just have SBB, there are lots of other imporantant organisation. RBB, SOB, BLS are signifcant in passenger transport. And of course the local governments with their Transport organisations. Is it in Britain somehow impossible for people to work thogether and come up with a plan? This could even have been done during privatisation. Japan has many private railway and do a lot of integrated planning. Its just a weakpoint of UK governemnt.
graemep 2y ago
Bear in mind that the rail system is already part nationalised everywhere (the rails were nationalised more than 20 years ago) and some of the train operating companies are too - so many rail journeys already take place entirely in a nationalised system.

by dagurp 2y ago

panick21_ 2y ago

Their program is pretty weak sauce to be honest. Not clear message of recreating BritishRail outright. They should go back to full uniform marketing strategy. NetworkRail should be rolled back into BritishRail. Their proposal is mostly adding more unneeded stuff, to the complex organizational chart. You don't need a 'Passenger Standards Authority', what you need is a public rail company that works for the public and has good funding. The rolling stock companies are literal cancers, the need to be burned down. In fact they should be disowned, the profit they made over the last decades should be removed from the price. They basically got a sweetheart deal and profit off the public since then. Its almost as fucking stupid as Chicago selling its own roads, almost. They also promised very little beyond that. Britain desperately needs a rolling electrification program and a rolling station access compliance program. No commitment to anything other then just 'nationalization' as a pretty abstract thing. There is no commitment to roll HS2 into BritishRail either.

manfromchicago 2y ago
How far back do you want to go? Even pre-privatization, there wasn't a "uniform strategy" - you had NSE, Inter-city, Provincial doing things up north, Scotrail in Scotland, not to mention the variety of PTEs who had their own schemes.
- panick21_ 2y ago
  Its not about 'going back'. Its about being smart and doing what makes sense. Yes, before privatisation there wasnt a totally uniform strategy but BritishRail certaintly had strategy, both for the network and in term of branding and marketing different setvices. This would not just be a BritishRail thing. It would also involve the government, local governemnt and related transport services like TfL. The smart way of doing it is basically what Switzerland did in Bahn2000. You first look at your current network and timetable and think about what you would optimally want, make a priority list. Then you study and figure out what you can get for how much price. Then you make targeted infrastructure and service investments to achieve those goals, and of course you coordinate between all the different stack holders. In Switzerland you also dont just have SBB, there are lots of other imporantant organisation. RBB, SOB, BLS are signifcant in passenger transport. And of course the local governments with their Transport organisations. Is it in Britain somehow impossible for people to work thogether and come up with a plan? This could even have been done during privatisation. Japan has many private railway and do a lot of integrated planning. Its just a weakpoint of UK governemnt.

graemep 2y ago

Bear in mind that the rail system is already part nationalised everywhere (the rails were nationalised more than 20 years ago) and some of the train operating companies are too - so many rail journeys already take place entirely in a nationalised system.