Nationalise the trains?

[Boris Johnson]

Nationalisation was like much in the late 40'ies and 50'ies a consequence of coming out of 7 years of fully mobilised war footing. Yes with some ideology thrown in (but did Churchill privatise them, no, so lets not get to bogged down in that).

However, way back in the day, the original robber barons ran a pretty tight ship. So suggesting the nationalisation was a intentional and economically founded decision to intervene in a market that was prone to failure. Is not borne out by the evidence.

The real issue, as I've been saying is that we really have improved on the infrastructure since the last generation of robber barons.

Considering the importance of an efficient and affordable railway network a a island that's now heavily urbanised and probably cannot afford any more motorways, or that many cars for that matter. Getting bogged down with partisan ideological nonsense, is hardly productive at a time when we need to be.

So shall we stop aruging past each other as to the 'justest' system of the railways and start looking to the most efficient system.

[Dobby]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of ... at_Britain

I know it's wikipedia but go down to section on 'the Big Four' in reference to them losing out to the road network. Yes we do need to look at the war as a key event. The Railways were heavily bombed in WW2 and as a result a great deal of maintenance and repair work was necessary and would of come at a great cost. I doubt any company would have been willing to take this work on due to the costs, so it was left to the government to save the railways.

The most efficient system would be nationalisation. Passenger numbers have risen in line with fuel prices as people look to the railways as a cheaper alternative than the cars. Fuel for cars is unsustainable so we need another form of transport and it's the railways that are on the rise. The fact is many people are still put off by the monstrous price of rail fares in this country. If it was nationalised, fares would be cheaper (as it would be ran as a public service, rather than a money grabbing business), passenger numbers would rise (even further) and the railways would be viewed as a matter of national importance (which it should be). As a matter of national importance the money would be provided for the infrastructure improvements we desperately need, and with more people using the railways it would make more financial sense to.

[Grandma Death]

The last time the tories were in power-they privatised it. Now they are spending billions of OUR money on those private networks. Its a farce.

[lil bit]

[Boris Johnson]

[Dobby]

[Dobby]

Ultimately if the infrastructure is improved privately, the companies will still want to run up their huge profits. This will cause prices to rise and would probably price people out of using the trains, as it would most likely be cheaper to run a car. Transport costs in this country would soar.

Yes, it's going to cost a lot of money, but it's not going to happen over night. We just need to slowly invest into a nationalised railway so that these improvement can take place over time. Building nonsense like HS2 should not be a top priority for funding when we have ageing overworked and overused lines across the country.

[Dobby]

[Boris Johnson]

[Dobby]