The government has unveiled plans for a fully privatised railway line, with track and trains operated by the same company.
A new line linking Oxford and Cambridge will not be developed by Network Rail, the owner of Britain’s rail infrastructure. Instead, a new entity will be responsible for track and infrastructure, as well as operating train services, under proposals drawn up by the transport secretary, Chris Grayling.
“What we are doing is taking this line out of Network Rail’s control,” Grayling told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Network Rail has got a huge number of projects to deliver at the moment … I want it to happen quicker. This is an essential corridor for this country. On that route we are going to bring in private finance, in a form to be decided.”
Much ill-informed bollocks below the line. However, there is no reason why a private enterprise cannot run a railway perfectly efficiently and safely. The objections are ideological rather than pragmatic. The RMT have knee-jerked their opposition. Well, they would, wouldn’t they?
That said, running a railway is hugely expensive, so I’m anticipating taxpayers’ money going in there somewhere. Overall, though, I see this has a positive step. The original privatisation was a mess. Railtrack was awful and Network Rail even more so. Given the low bar they are starting from, it would be hard to make things worse…
As we all know, it was an EU requirement, reluctantly implemented by HMG, that track and train should be two seperate entities (actually two seperate accounting entities). Thus this return to a “joint enterprise” is only possible because we are leaving the EU; and so if “we” wanted to, we could put ut all back together again …
Indeed so. And I am cautiously optimistic. One thing that is not obvious to those outside the industry is just how awful Network Rail is. No one wants to make a decision and the organisation and those of us who have to deal with it become paralysed by indecisiveness.
With all of the present discussion about the state of the railways in the UK, I ponder upon what I have read about what used to be called “The Big Four”, the LMS, the GWR, the LNER and the Southern railway companies.They had their own lines, they paid for running rights on the lines of onther Companies, freight and passengers were accommodated with integrated time-tabling and the whole system was much larger than the present rail network.
The Big Four were private companies with shareholders as well as passengers. Both had to be kept happy with the Company operations and profits.
And it worked.
It worked until it was nationalised, then our rail system crumbled. Many of the lines axed by Beeching would now be welcomed as being positive examples of public transport.