My ill formed opinion....if the free market is involved then profit end up the main driver...
...it works for things like telecommunications where the medium can be carved up and there is a genuine market...but not so good with things like trains where as soon as contracts are won they have you by the balls.
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transparenttown Dead to worse..., Thu 24 Sep 2015, 14:09,
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I sort of agree
and always thought that nationalising the railways would be a good idea.
But just because the Tories ballsed up the privatisation in the 90s doesn't mean that the theory isn't sound. If we can actually get true competition on routes (such is slowly beginning to emerge) then the benefits in terms of better trains and somewhat lower fares will start to emerge.
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Mr Mann I love pigs, best of all the animals, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 14:49,
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it's cost an awful lot in subsidies and taken two decades to get to a point where you feel you can argue that it might at some point in the future start to be worth it.
I'm not that convinced.
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tickle I was away, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 15:13,
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As opposed to the subsidies *everyone* paid when it was in national hands...?
The whole mess is Thatcher's legacy, coupled with the Beeching Axe under a Labour government
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Mr Mann I love pigs, best of all the animals, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 15:29,
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if it costs subsidies either way why have a system where a private comany takes out 2050 million a year as well as not making a profit?
oops. :D 250 million. :D
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tickle I was away, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 17:05,
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oh just a little couple more decades please?
*said like Mister Burns*
(, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 22:18, Reply)
You cannot get competition on routes, for the simple reason that only one train can go from A to B at any given time.
If I arrive at the train station, I will get on the next fastest train to where I want to go, regardless of who runs it.
If there is one in 5 minutes time, I'm on it, because no-one else can compete with that. There will be no other train going to where I want to go in 5 minutes time. If there were two trains going there at that time, I might have a choice, but the system would be woefully inefficient and the infrastructure which exists wouldn't be able to cope with that.
So nationalisation makes total sense.
(, Thu 24 Sep 2015, 17:23, Reply)
Slowly beginning to emerge?
I work for the biggest TOC in Europe, yet to see any evidence for this.
They've had nineteen years to emerge it at any speed they choose, it hasn't.
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sir_spicious2000 Crap I've watched: www.filmplop.blogspot.com/, Fri 25 Sep 2015, 0:34,
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