Renationalising

Mudball

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Turning back time.. looks like we are slowly renationalising a few things. This does not mean it is a good or bad thing.

1) Railways >> Franchises have failed, some of the most expensive train tickets in the world now >> Coming soon, Great British Rail
2) Energy cos >> Price shock, customers in lurch... >> will the govt step in?
3) Petrol cos >> ??

In sectors, the markets have been good (telecom, Banks?), in others Social approach has worked but creaking (health/NHS). Should we turn the dial back and look at renationalising our key national infrastructure?
 

pauljames87

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Turning back time.. looks like we are slowly renationalising a few things. This does not mean it is a good or bad thing.

1) Railways >> Franchises have failed, some of the most expensive train tickets in the world now >> Coming soon, Great British Rail
2) Energy cos >> Price shock, customers in lurch... >> will the govt step in?
3) Petrol cos >> ??

In sectors, the markets have been good (telecom, Banks?), in others Social approach has worked but creaking (health/NHS). Should we turn the dial back and look at renationalising our key national infrastructure?

Yes imo

Public services should be run for the public not profit
 

Dando

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my train operating company have been relieved of their duties after not paying £25M profits back to the Government
 

pauljames87

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A few people on here know I work for London underground, pre covid our finances were in a great state and all our profits went straight back into the network for improvement and upgrades

We had no grant from central government as of 2012 think it was off top of head so have to self fund

When covid hit the franchises were bailed out in hours we were bailed out with conditions all due to issues we can't discuss on this forum anymore

However "Great British rail" will follow the tfl model so they slate us when it suits but we so well run that they want all train companies to follow
 

Mudball

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A few people on here know I work for London underground, pre covid our finances were in a great state and all our profits went straight back into the network for improvement and upgrades

We had no grant from central government as of 2012 think it was off top of head so have to self fund

When covid hit the franchises were bailed out in hours we were bailed out with conditions all due to issues we can't discuss on this forum anymore

However "Great British rail" will follow the tfl model so they slate us when it suits but we so well run that they want all train companies to follow

I am waiting to hear more about GBR. TFL is a great model, however it may not work on a national scale. TFL runs within a well defined high-density and multi-modal mass transit and a have a big chunk of profitable routes to cross subsidise itself. Despite the forum-rule-flouting challenges, it is also incredibly well run. I wonder how it will scale up when it has to run unprofitable routes or ghost trains in remote parts of the country. Not impossible, but a challenge neverthless... As it says, "every journey matters".
 

pauljames87

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I am waiting to hear more about GBR. TFL is a great model, however it may not work on a national scale. TFL runs within a well defined high-density and multi-modal mass transit and a have a big chunk of profitable routes to cross subsidise itself. Despite the forum-rule-flouting challenges, it is also incredibly well run. I wonder how it will scale up when it has to run unprofitable routes or ghost trains in remote parts of the country. Not impossible, but a challenge neverthless... As it says, "every journey matters".

Yes it would be a challenge for ghost routes

I mean night tube (another poor decision by a former mayor) is run at a loss ... Because there is no more money and I can tell you now ...hardly anyone uses it!!!

What would be better is run the trains hour later and hour earlier .. but they didn't ask those who run it
 

RichA

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Interesting that the company's operation has been taken over for not paying its fees to the DfT, rather than failing its customers.
Also loving the name "Operator of Last Resort". Really confidence inspiring.
 

RichA

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Why are so many people desperate to drag us back to the 70s?
Yeah. We could at least nationalise the bookmakers, breweries, tobacco firms and big SM so the country turns a profit, rather than the stuff that ran the economy down 40 years ago.
 

Tashyboy

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I agree with socket. How can this be discussed without being political.
Nationalised Industry’s sold off for a pittance to those that could afford it at the time. Now everyone is paying for it in bucketloads.
Yes they should be nationalised and any profits put back into the business or government coffers
 

pauljames87

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Why are so many people desperate to drag us back to the 70s?

Key public services are better if run for not profit and run for public service

Why are trains taking profits when their key service is to get the public from a to b

But then if anything goes wrong the tax payer bails them out

If they were nationalised they could take profits to the tax payer if any after improving the network
 

Dando

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Interesting that the company's operation has been taken over for not paying its fees to the DfT, rather than failing its customers.
Also loving the name "Operator of Last Resort". Really confidence inspiring.

i have used southeastern trains for years and the service was shocking. at one point my morning train was late every day for over a year.

they also liked running trains fast to avoid paying out compensation for late running services
 

RichA

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i have used southeastern trains for years and the service was shocking. at one point my morning train was late every day for over a year.

they also liked running trains fast to avoid paying out compensation for late running services
I used to use SE occasionally and found it pretty random. It did make me appreciate my commute with Abellio Greater Anglia, which is hard to fault.
 

pauljames87

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So much short sightedness though from any gov department (all parties so not political)

Battersea just opened for us

6 mil saved not putting in sidings off the end of Battersea platforms

So far 15 millions spent on software and other bits so two trains can outstable there and not fail in the morning..

We used to have 2 big power stations and make our own electric if needed .. shut them down.. we could fire up and go off grid if needed which right now would help
 

doublebogey7

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For me services only work well in the private sector where there is true competition and the public are able to change supplier relatively regularly and without hastle.
 
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