Ministers are telling us their nationalisation of rail will produce much better services and fares. Great British Rail we are told will have a single controlling mind that will get decisions right and provide much better answers. Ministers freely admit that their railway to date is poor on punctuality, low on passenger satisfaction and dreadful at value for money. They are right about that.
They also need to point out that the railway they took over was almost fully nationalised. Labour nationalised Network Rail, taking control of all the track, signals, powerlines and structures in 2002. A lot of the delays and cancellations on the current railway are down to Network Rail failures. The last government had started the nationalisation of the rest, bringing into public control train operating companies as and when franchises ran out or were surrendered for lack of profit. This government is continuing the same policy.
Privatisation in its early years worked well on the railways. When John Prescott took over as Transport Secretary he had to admit that there had been good growth in passenger numbers and better investment in new trains in a virtuous circle. Privatisation freed the railways from the need to compete with more nurses, doctors, police and teachers in the public spending rounds. New companies brought in new services, better timetables, modern trains. Large new capital investments were made by Train companies and leasing companies. The industry moved into profit as journeys took off and more fares were paid.
After the nationalisation of Network Rail governments also took more and more control of fares and timetables. It became more difficult for train companies to provide better services, and they were restricted by the slots they could get from Network Rail. The Fat Controller had arrived in Whitehall, and Ministers accepted they were to be pilloried for every train cancelation and bad timetable so government might as well direct and restrict companies. .
Last year less than 85% of trains arrived within three minutes of timetable, and more than 4% were cancelled altogether. Customer satisfaction was low, concerned over a lack of reliability and high standard fares . The industry needed £21.6 bn of government money and raised just £11.5bn in fares. If you had a birds eye view of the routes into our leading towns and cities at peak times on a working week day you would see horribly congested roads and largely empty train lines. The lack of up to date digital signalling and of in cab views of the line mean large gaps are enforced between trains, limiting train slots and pathways at busy times. These failings are largely down to long nationalised Network Rail that has not put in the new signalling and satellite based control systems and takes a risk averse approach to train spacing. They are of course right to want to take all actions to avoid collisions. They need to be backed up by drivers who do not pass signals at danger and better visibility of the positions of every train.
The railway gets money out of all proportion to the use it offers the public and business. Rail freight is down 28% in the last decade, with the railway wanting trainload business and being bad at single waggon marshalling and smaller load handling. Passenger numbers have not recovered from the covid hit, with working from home now undermining the 5 day a week commuter business where the railway overcharged for season ticket travellers who had to deal with the monopoly. Rail accounts for just 2% of trips undertaken, compared to cars at 59%. Even on miles travelled we travel seven times a far by car as by train.
Rail gets its £21bn of support whilst motor vehicles face a barrage of charges and taxes, contributing far more to the Exchequer than the cost of the nationalised roads. Vehicle traffic is starved of new highway despite the success of that way of travel, and faces increasing restrictions on the roads we do have as Councils remove lanes, narrow lanes, put in more lights and speed controls and close some roads altogether. Drivers pay VAT and car tax on the purchase of a vehicle, fuel duty and VAT on petrol , and VED to licence a car for road use.
The railways have a deal to die for on tax. There is no VAT on rail fares at all, though much travel is leisure and pleasure travel where VAT is charged on everything else. The diesel trains on the network can use red diesel, where instead of paying 52.95 p a litre of fuel duty they pay just 6.3p. The electric trains do not have to pay the climate change levy, though for much of the time they are running on electrical power generated by burning gas or wood in power stations.
So what is needed to right the three evils Ministers want to tackle? They will certainly require large sums of new capital. Network Rail needs to get on with comprehensive digital signalling and modern information systems for drivers and network controllers to avoid collisions and increase throughput. Train companies need new rolling stock and more trains to provide the additional services. Within the framework of a nationalised railway it will need franchise and contract opportunities for the private sector to run new services and supply new facilities, with a proper risk transfer to the private company. They can then raise the money needed.
It is going to require innovation and new services. That requires open access. Those who think up new ways of generating fare and related revenue from a better passenger offer should get access rights to the track and stations so they can run their service. With more capacity available as digital comes in so more entrepreneurs will be able to provide the better and different services and train routes people want.
It also requires a new management approach by the nationalised industry. Ministers say they want to be taken out of the loop on issues of fares, timetables and details of investment plans. That is a good idea but in practice as Ministers own it they will be expected to explain the failures. The management they appoint to run the nationalised part needs to work out how to raise the productivity and service quality of the nationalised system, and needs to create relations with the Unions that allow that to be implemented. This will not be easy.
The task will be easier if new services are admitted to the network by an independent regulator on fair access terms. These may well pioneer better standards for employees. They can pioneer new ways of remuneration that link higher pay to better success in running to time and providing services people are willing to pay for. That can only happen if Network Rail gets on with allowing much greater use of our often empty railway lines.
July 17, 2026
We just never learn, so are condemned to destroy all that we create in a never ending cycle.
We need a Constitutional Court to define the very limited scope of Government. The ‘acquis’ must be to the people, once private enterprise provides a service, the Govt must lose that service forever.
The principle being that the State, at any level cannot compete in any enterprise for profit.
July 17, 2026
No. That’s just extra bureaucracy!
In order to have happy, sufficient, thriving economy, culture and country we need more of (The Christian) God. Like how Egypt thrived under Joseph of Egypt, the second most important man in the world (sure, there is an element of legend about Jospeh). That’s the promise of the Jewish Bible! And we see this promise borne out, to an important degree, in the life of Cyrus the Great and how the Persian Empire and others thrived under him in both peace time and war (and as soon as I can, I want to visit his tomb in Pasargadae – Persia, to pay homage to the great man!). And so much from Britain’s past.
x
July 17, 2026
So how would any of these individuals, including the ‘Christian God’ (as if there was another!) deal with the railways and the problem of the State both making the rules and competing in the game?
July 17, 2026
Firstly, The Almighty is interested in every aspect of our lives from the tiny to the profoundly big (the ‘tiny’ – bit like how parents are fascinated when they see their toddler pick a cup for the first time and help the toddler, whilst laughing and really enjoying the moment, to place the cup on the table type thing).
I’m not a politician, but when you look at political leaders of the past and when they turned to God, amazing things happened. You had people such as Joseph of Egypt, the second most important man in the world, under whom Egypt flourished. Sure, Joseph partly the stuff of legend (but not completely). But this is God saying what will happen if people turn to Him (we see something similar with Moses, King David and Solomon – the wisdom of Solomon). And we see this borne out, to an important degree, in the life of Cyrus the Great mentioned also in the Old Testament (the other Biblical figures mentioned here were historically real but we don’t know to what degree their lives were dramatised for some theological / philosophical purpose as opposed to the life of Cyrus that is completely historical). Who was a great (although still flawed) leader both in peace time and war.
No doubt, Cyrus could have sorted out the trains, better than others, if he were alive today .. x
July 17, 2026
Lynn
I despair for our Country I really do, everything run by the Government costs a fortune but fails.
Those employed by the State and Local Authorities are usually paid well, have a great pension scheme, sick leave entitlement, and holidays, and what in many cases is a job for life, no matter how poorly they perform.
Private industry which pays for it all, is now regulated and taxed to death, so that is also failing.
The self employed have been hammered for years and new taxation ideas suggest that will continue.
There is an old saying that some people “know the cost of everything but the value of nothing” unfortunately many of our Politicians know nothing about either.
We now have the blind leading the sighted (who are in Government handcuffs).
July 17, 2026
The problem stems from rigid ideology. One believes in complete State control, the other leaving it all to the Markets. Rather than examining the particular nuances of each industry and trying a combination of State ownership of the assets (tracks, station and trains) but leaving the management of it to private enterprise.
If a ‘strategic’ business cannot be made to be profitable, then ownership through a Trust similar to that of John Lewis.
July 17, 2026
MB,
“If a ‘strategic’ business cannot be made to be profitable, then ownership through a Trust similar to that of John Lewis.”
John Lewis appointed a DEI ex civil service boss with disastrous consequences.
Young’s the former brewer now also has a DEI female from Cambridge with no pub, hospitality experience as a non exec. Ticks a couple of boxes.
She is notable for complaining about a statue of benefactor Tobias Rustat who she said made money from slavery. Her complaint was rejected by C of E as exaggerating the amount he made from slavery. She then moaned about C of E legal procedures.
Not exactly what you need in a pub company. Posted from a pub formerly known as ( racist title) and still referred to as such by older locals.
July 17, 2026
Is John Lewis able to trade at a loss because it’s a Trust?
This has nothing to do with ideology. It’s all to do with keeping the train on the tracks so to speak.
When I was a child and had to share something with a cousin, like a cake, one cut and the other had first choice. That baked in fairness.
No umpire can compete in the game. The Govt. is the rule maker and umpire. They MUST NEVER BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE FOR PROFIT as well as take a couple of cuts by way of inflation (which they control) and taxation.
July 17, 2026
‘The task will be easier if new services are admitted to the network by an independent regulator on fair access terms.’
Because our UK regulators have always been so successful across the full spectrum of utilities, transport and financial services.
July 17, 2026
Meanwhile in The Grauniad –
“Adversarial clothing’: are garments designed to confuse facial recognition systems about to go mainstream?”
We already have hoodies and a variety of facemasks. Still seen in Summer heat too.
We are not as practiced in public protests as our European neighbours. Or so inclined to take part in them. Otherwise you might say –
I predict a riot.
July 17, 2026
@Peter – facial recognition isn’t something a machine viewing people as you and I would. Its an antilogarithm based on the Math of were certain features are measured from in proximity to one another. It is possible to buy glasses that causes these facial recognition systems to believe they are seeing someone else – even dead ‘movie stars’
What it shouldn’t be doing in a free and open civilisation is recording everyone that passes and storing their details on a database without cause or legal reason. Searching for known felons that are already on a database and have gone missing and need catching is different. The UK Parliament tracks and monitors all movements, including the innocent without just cause, a legal reason. The only cause they employ is control, in that the UK Parliament mirrors the Chinese State.
July 17, 2026
When HS2 starts running, £21.6 billion subsidy will seem a bargain
July 17, 2026
Looking at case studies, Switzerland is a great example of why nationalisation doesn’t work (obviously, you need some public money in rail – like in all manor western countries around the world including Switzerland).
Even though each country’s rail challenges are never exactly the same, you can still learn something from them. Switzerland has excellent rail. From my basic research, Switzerland appears to charge customers hefty rail fares compared to here. But there’s something else going on. The Swiss seem to take pleasure in ensuring they have aesthetically-pleasing looking trains and a transport system overall that is well integrated and runs well (and that’s to do with work ethic / patriotism – not just profit).
July 17, 2026
Ed M. Completely different from my experience with Germany. Years ago they were cheap, clean and efficient. Recently they’ve gone really down hill. Switzerland has even banned some from their system because they’re causing disruption. I think only Japan works properly.
July 17, 2026
Fair enough. Don’t know Switzerland well enough to comment back.
July 17, 2026
So why did you cite it?
I was last in Germany 18 years ago and went by train to Bingen am Rhine.
We could hear the grass and bushes between the rails scraping the underside of the train. The whole route was derelict and at the Bingen terminus there was copious broken glass and one man out cold suffering from either drugs or drink, at midday.
We went because my father-in-law, a POW taken at Dunkirk, always considered Bingen to be beautiful.
German rail is a mess, Germany is a mess, we have a lot of friends there.
Instead of trying to copy everyone else, try paddling your own canoe for a change.
British men made the modern world, there was nothing to copy, we invented or created everything.
July 17, 2026
Firstly, I agree with you 100% that our country has a GREAT history of rail (and would never claim otherwise!). Secondly, I was talking about now – not then. And, thirdly, I was talking about Switzerland – not Germany! x
July 17, 2026
Your trip to Germany sounds very interesting.
I had a great chat with a woman recently whose father participated in the St Nazaire Raid in WW2. What amazing men.
July 18, 2026
Kuoni used to offer ski holidays to Switzerland where you checked in to your flight at Heathrow and when you landed at Zurich you boarded a train to your destination.Your luggage and skis were sent to your destination separately, without need for you to carry them in Switzerland.
In Davos you could also use the train to get to and from Klosters in your ski gear. You could also travel St Moritz on the train, though I used walking boots between station and destination. Davos had better snow than St Moritz and -apart from the globalist week – was reasonably priced.
July 17, 2026
OK, so let’s just focus on Japan.
This is what I read – that private rail companies in Japan generate profits by operating big commercial and residential real estate portfolios around their stations which allows them to run their railways without relying on government subsidies.
Do our railways own such real estate?
YES! (Not sure how much? / if anything like the Japanese?).
So next question is: how much money is this real estate generating? And how efficiently is that being run?
(And real estate is the thing that plays a key role in making Japan the leader in rail – if it is – so let’s focus on that).
July 17, 2026
I’m doing more research now. The Japanese railways run supermarkets, department stores, offices, retirement homes and more including co-building Tokyo Disneyland. Another owns a baseball team. Is our railway doing anything like that with the land it owns? Or is it just letting and selling off its land? And again what valuable property does it own compared to Japan. I think this is something we should really be looking at.
July 17, 2026
You would like the U.K. economy to imitate the Japanese economy?
You should do some research to see just how successful Japan has been before you advocate mimicking it.
July 18, 2026
One of the most important things to bring back into British politics is HOPE!
All over the place, I see people in a state of despair over politics and the future of our great country.
I refuse to fall into that despair. I believe our country has potentially a great future (whilst nothing in this life is ever going to be perfect either)!
Lots of love
July 19, 2026
Yes, indeed. What about using worlddata.info selecting the UK and Japan and seeing the results for quality of life, economy, infrastructure, energy balance, telecommunications, healthcare system, education.
One can also get FIFA World Cup, population, climate, languages and religions.
May the best win.
July 17, 2026
Swiss rail fares are much cheaper than UK book on the day fares. Most Swiss have a half price card anyway and everything is double the coat of the UK. British fare are a lottery and ony cheaper off peak. They even manage to keep train toilets clean.
July 17, 2026
Same as my experience with Swiss rail Stred, did a 7 day rail holiday using them, booking our own tickets as we went.
Clean and comfortable trains which ran to the second. beats anything we have been on before or since.
Not been to Japan so cannot comment on their system.
July 17, 2026
(And a huge problem in the UK affecting things like Rail but in general too is that we’re cripped by socialism, yes – and WOKE, but we’re also crippled to a certain degree to by excessive focus on profit – by ‘loads of money’ (Harry Enflied) / Scrooge (before his conversion) mentality. When a rail and country can only work when everything is underpinned by work ethic (like the Quakers) and patriotism (flag waving at football matches and at Last Night of the Proms is good and proper but only a small part of what real patriotism is – real patriotism is something we get from our Judaeo-Christian heritage. That we believe our country is a beautiful thing and worth preserving and helping to flourish for now and the future – whether rail or our rolling green fields or the arts and sport and architecture and jobs and science and education and health and the military and farming and the fisheries and monarchy and parliament and police force etc. The Almighty is like a writer – like Charles Dickens or Dickens is like God – Who has created this amazing although imperfect world – ‘imperfect’ because of original sin – for us to live in and wants us all to live in an aesthetically-pleasing environment and country, with jobs we like, happy family home, lots of good interests – and an interesting life in general! And we have to try and work towards that with work ethic and patriotism as our main tools here. But the real ‘country’ is Heaven and at some point in time, God will glorify what we’re trying to achieve here now on Earth. It’s not about achieving perfection but having a good go. And boy o boy have I experienced GREAT joy living in this great country. I love it. God bless our wonderful country).
July 17, 2026
Patriotism is loving your own ‘tribe’ – your own people with whom you share genes to the point that you are willing to lay down your life to protect the gene pool. We have a mutual interest in each others survival, to protect what Matt Ridley called, ‘the selfish gene’.
If there is no nation, no country is required, because all a country is is a home to a nation, where they can live in safety among their own people (as the Bible – the Christian one) advocates.
And that is why the Globalists are promoting mass immigration, to destroy the nations so that countries will wither on the vine and they will be able to establish One World Government.
July 19, 2026
You’re almost right … The Selfish Gene is by Richard Dawkins. Viscount Ridley’s text published on 07/02/2016 is ‘Reflections on The Selfish Gene’, a (very nice) commentary on Dawkins’s 1976 book.
July 17, 2026
(work ethic and patriotism AND love – soft and tough love)
July 17, 2026
Train services have been mismanaged into a wastefully expensive chaotic mess.
Labour are likely to keep it that way.
July 17, 2026
B,
We used to have a joined-up national rail service with reasonable fares.
Then some bright spark thought it would be a good idea to privatise it. Unfortunately the whole lot was too big to attract a buyer.
Hence franchises, that come and go with huge subsidies to keep them happy.
In the meantime, the people with a lifetime rail experience have left the industry.
July 17, 2026
“Services that people are willing to pay for” – note that total rail taxpayer subsidies are about the same as total ticket revenues both approximately £12 billion per annum. Meanwhile taxes on cars and roads means that the cost per mile of car travel is typically doubled by taxes. So a market rigged by a relative tax/subsidy four times advantage for trains. What would be the real demand for rail if trains had no subsidy and were taxes the same as cars? Ticket would need to be well over 4 times the price. Well over four times, as the higher costs would kill so much of the demand and even more expensive ticket would be needed.
Other than a few specific routes the industry is simply not competitive in a fair market at all. Self driving cars arriving soon and thus far cheaper driverless taxis will make trains even less competitive. Even for single passengers let alone full cars which already can be 20 times cheaper per passenger than trains (despite the rigged market) and also door to door too.
July 17, 2026
@Lifelogic – ‘Self driving cars’ by there very nature especially in a Socialist State like the UK are externally controlled – do you think it is right that anyone finding their way into a UK Parliament should control ‘all’ the journeys you take?
As of this year all cars sold have to have speed limiters that inform of you of the speed limit. Now to be added to that its is proposed that all cars are to be fitted with cameras to monitor driver activity. All modern cars not just EV’s can be controlled externally, that means the authorities. In some situations that also means foreign powers.
I can get some of the well-meaning gestures behind some of these rulings( but they are just gestures) but as always in the UK, the over-ride is it is Parliament with their chosen authorities that rule, dictate and control the switches. In fear of the People
This isn’t scare mongering, its what the UK Parliament has in its misadventures of their rule first – has chosen. The online safety bill is nothing of the sort it is Parliament intruding to control everyday life. We need to get wise the UK Parliament can’t control and manage itself and they seem to lash out to hide their inadequacy’s, the failures after failures by having the need to control others. People that are empowered and paid to manage hit out at criticism of failure by wanting more control.
July 17, 2026
My thanks to Sir David Davis the PM we alas never got (thanks to the LibDem Tory MPs) for his excellent work on Lucy Letby and he is now exposing under Parliament Privilege some of the possible cesspits of the SNP, Ms Sturgeon and the Scottish legal systems conflicts of interests and the dire state of politics in Scotland. Thanks to the appalling Brown/Blair botched devolution.
Burnham wants even more of this it seems.
July 17, 2026
So another kick in the teeth by Starmer for Londoners and the UK by elevating the vile two tier Sadiq Kahn into the Lords. Donald Trump is right he has consistently criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan, calling him “grossly incompetent,” a “stone cold loser,” and “a nasty person” who has done a “terrible job”.
Khan absurdly (and hugely damagingly for London and the UK) has labeled Trump as “racist, sexist, and Islamophobic and put him in a nappy”. He is clearly non of these things. Let us hope the new Northern lad and Cambridge English Grad. will listen to Trump – control the borders, enforce law and order, make work pay, open the North Sea drill, frack, mine, spend more on defence, cut the size of the state… alas very little sign of any sense for Burnham or Labour.
Burnham must surely have agreed to the elevation of Sadiq Kahn.
July 17, 2026
@Lifelogic – continuation of Blair, beak things that are not broken, that leads to more corruption and perversions of society and democracy. Its then either Politburo/Dictatorship rule or an uprising – it will never bred a strong sovereign democracy
July 17, 2026
Methinks you hope in vain. He’s another Fabian Marxist.
July 17, 2026
Invest in digital rail infrastructure, enable private innovation through open access, modernise management, and expand capacity to improve reliability, value, and passenger services: All sensible improvements.
July 17, 2026
@Bloke – when you read John’s take on these things over the years, you wonder why the UK Parliament keeps repeating the same mistakes over and over achieving the same results and are unwilling to listen. The UK’s ‘ego’ that breads failure is embedded there is no interest in breaking the cycle.
July 17, 2026
So Burnham is probably making an enemy of Trump on day one with the absurd elevation of Sadiq Kahn to the Lords. A person who had wrecked London and absurdly abused Trump. A very bad more Burnham. So when do we find out how he is shuffling his dire pack of wrong headed cards for our new Ministers of State?
July 17, 2026
As with the water companies, you say nationalisation is not the answer. At the same time you acknowledge privatisation has failed (miserably)
So what is the answer, to both conundrums?
Reply Competition!
July 17, 2026
Might I suggest mutualisation?
The services belong to the people that use them, as well as the employees having a share.
Privatisation doesn’t work because the owners want the business to return profits and not invest.
Nationalisation doesn’t work because the government doesn’t provide the investment, and the unionised employees think they have a right to a job and go on strike for better pay and conditions.
July 17, 2026
OA,
“So what is the answer, to both conundrums?”
More excuses.
July 17, 2026
A nice can of worms for us to pick over today.
Then reflect aren’t the railways a reflection of everything else central government gets to control, health, tax, roads so on and so on. Then as you suggest they also want to be hands off ‘Ministers say they want to be taken out of the loop on issues of fares, timetables and details of investment plans.’ – at no stage can anything that gets to demand or require taxpayer money be taken out of the ‘loop’ They want take money from people by ‘law’ then hand it away without then having the responsibility?
Why can’t I charge my neighbour for my holidays? They wouldn’t have a choice of for why and what I achieved from it either – it the same thing, we all need holidays
How much more irresponsible is the UK Parliament going to get?
July 17, 2026
JR says The industry needed £21.6 bn of government money and raised just £11.5bn in fares. So even worse that the figures I found perhaps his figures included some of the mad HS2 project or are more up to date. So each £10 you spend on a train ticket tax payers have to pay another £18.80 for your trip & many of these people will probably never even use trains themselves. Why should they have to pay?
July 17, 2026
We should at least get free tickets, even if we don’t use them. It would encourage rail use.
July 17, 2026
The UK Parliament has lost the plot of its purpose, its still playing at being a ‘local council’. Look at the broader situation Parliament is creating new Unitary Bodies, breaking up counties, existing councils for what, so lofty Parliament with nothing better to do can dictate what happens in local areas – because they(Parliament) knows best.
They cant even organise themselves.
July 17, 2026
Burnham says in his Gary Lineaker (goal hanger podcast) on wealth taxes – that a lot of economists are calling for one (not any remotely sensible economists). Burnham is still hiding from any real and serious interviews but we do know about his tea making.
July 17, 2026
And he can’t even make the tea!
July 17, 2026
Seemingly off topic but it is not. The Media tells us 2TK in one of the last coin tosses sets out to ensure an already seemingly house of disrepute (the HoL) is have an axe driven further into our pathetic artificial democracy.
Parliament needs checks and balances, it needs proper democracy. Manipulation by the few so they get to rule without proper scrutiny belongs in the Worlds despot nations.
It is also at the root of today’s discussion, the abilities, the know-how to manage for results by bye-passing all those that ‘can’ to stroke the ego of those that keep demonstrating they ‘cant’
Corruption of the mind feeding even more corruption a Walter Mitty Parliament
July 17, 2026
Sorry, we don’t believe a word of that – whatever labour do they always manage to screw things up, make things worse – and we’ve heard similar hot air promises before, so nothing new here.
Nationalisation is pure dogma, meaning ineffective, costly and inefficient.
The rail service as it stands is not perfect – almost adequate, but if the people proposed to run the railways are simply taken from the pool of civil servants entrenched in socialist thinking then nothing will get better.
Without a large degree of private enterprise / innovative thinking, will we still have a railway in 10 years?
July 17, 2026
Communist China’s trains are renowned for their punctuality. They are also punctual in Russia, a legacy of the USSR. So, as far as our Fabian Marxist government is concerned, the solution is obvious. Turn Britain into a model socialist paradise and the trains will naturally run on time. You know, like the NHS, a socialist construct from the start.
July 17, 2026
Relating to how cranky things are.
The Argentine Football team made a big banner gesture on the ownership of the Falkland Islands at the World Cup. Then as the Express Newspaper calculated the UK spend £60million a year defending these islands. The Express then suggested 6 member of the Argentine Team play for English teams with their collective tax and NI payments come to around £23million all paid to the HMRC – so these 6 players could be said to be paying a third of the Falklands Island Defence bill
July 17, 2026
Ian B
Love the irony !
July 17, 2026
One big failure of privatisation is that the new trains which have been introduced lack luggage space and have virtually no cycle storage space. Time was when there was a guard’s van into which bicycles and outsized luggage items could easily be loaded and from which they could easily be retrieved as stops were long enough to provide sufficient time. Now they want to get trains away within a couple of minutes of arrival. If government was serious about getting people out of their cars and onto public transport, they should make it easy and convenient for us to do so. Provide ample luggage space and make it easy to travel with a bicycle.
July 17, 2026
While we talk here about the railways at this very moment the border fence between Gibraltar and Spain is being dismantled. Gibraltar is now part of the Schengen area and the only ones having to show passports now are people from outside Schengen all at the joint Spain/Gib airport border control. So how about that? and how fast things can move with one stroke Utrecht 1713 is struck down and the same thing can happen to any other bits Britain still holds – so hold onto your seats.
July 17, 2026
Imagine if our political leaders had had a drop of Solomon’s wisdom over HS2 and Afghan and Iraq wars. How much money would we have saved (and more importantly regarding the wars, lives saved and geopolitical disasters avoided). £130 Billion. Staggering. And these were pretty, straightforward but huge mistakes (I’m no Einstein and I saw the huge dangers of these before and arguing against both – HS2 and the wars).
We could have spent the bulk of that towards paying of our debt. And the rest on tax cuts, improving our system for curbing illegal immigration, increasing military spending as well as investing in trying to turn Cambridge (to Oxford) as world’s second Silicon Valley and helping entrepreneurs in general, as well as some investment in the north to help the manufacturing sector there. And more (including spending a tiny fraction of the £100 Billion on improving the existing rail service and experience from the south to the north).
And so much more waste.
July 17, 2026
It is not whether the railways are nationalised or privatised that is important. It is the quality of the management and the work ethic and culture of its employees. Neither system will cope if the management are poor and the employees are deliberately bolshy and continually blackmail travellers with threats of strike action. If we had a competent Parliament & Civil Service a good start could be made to bring down rail costs and improve safety and reliability by initiating the transition to driverless trains. Costs could also be reduced by selectively converting the 19th century technology of steel wheels on a steel track to driverless coaches with pneumatic tyres running on a tarmac track. These coaches could use both the normal roads and their faster computer guided tracks to provide a more door-to-door service.
July 17, 2026
PS : Privatisation only works if it can create a real, unrigged competitive market. This is not feasible with either water with our current high costs of energy needed for pumping water around nor for rail with its existing steel wheels on a steel track technology combined with long infrequent trains. If some public transport transitioned to driverless tyred coaches running on tarmac roads, some of which could be dedicated roads for these vehicles to allow fast, congestion free connections, then these coaches could be privatised.
July 17, 2026
you should try and get an interview with the @GreenSignals YouTuube channel.
your sensible ideas contrast with their rather communist everything should be state owned views.
but they are watched by much of the rail industry.
July 17, 2026
So according to our new PM, we can expect a lot of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ while continuing with the labour 2024 manifesto …..great !
July 17, 2026
Did you say “dope and pain” ?