Trains and tracks could be reunited and put under public control for the first time since privatisation, under plans to make Scotland a test case for the rest of the rail industry, The Times has learnt.
Secret talks open way to nationalise rail network-Business-Industry Sectors-Transport-TimesOnline.
Hm… Now this is an interesting development. My immediate thoughts are that the idea is not automatically all bad. The split between train operator and infrastructure was always a bad idea, recognisable by just about everyone but John Major’s cabinet. That disquiet has proved to be well founded. That Network Rail have taken back maintenance in-house following some pretty (predictable and predicted) disastrous lack of maintenance during the late nineties lends yet more credence to that disquiet.
However, what about the money companies have invested in stock? How will they be compensated if the state does a grab-back? Then there’s the little matter of British Rail. Do we really want a return to that? Really?
Bristow Muldoon, the chairman of Labour’s Scottish Policy Forum, said that bringing tracks and trains back under the control of a single body, serving in the public interest rather than generating profits for shareholders, could bring huge benefits. “I believe there is a high possibility that reintegrating tracks and trains would deliver better value for money,” he said.
Yes, it was called British Rail and, frankly, it wasn’t all good. It wasn’t all bad, either, but it was a monolith ridden with bureaucracy. The alternative is this:
The Conservatives at Westminster are also developing proposals for reintegrating tracks and trains, but they favour splitting the network into regions, each controlled by a single private company.
Of course, we had this model too. Again, not perfect.
I’ll be watching this one develop with interest.
What’s your problem with the Big Four?
I don’t, specifically. Indeed, this would be my preferred model. However, there remains the vexed problem of investment in the infrastructure. I remain to be convinced that a purely private concern could manage this and make a decent profit without raiding the tax kitty.