Rail Franchising - The Future

[First Class]

RE: Rail Franchising - The Future

(03/10/2012 11:56)wirralbus Wrote:  Renationalisation will be more costly and even more time consuming than the present position we have , we have to look at saving money , not draining more of it down the drain on a changeover from private to nationalised .

I don't agree. East Coast has performed tremendously well with minimal cost associated with the takeover from National Express.

The industry is so tightly regulated at the moment, it is effectively still nationalised, except private companies are able to skim some of the profits before giving the rest to the government.

If the government already specifies:

1) Rate fares can increase
2) Rolling stock that a franchise must use
3) The terms of the timetable
4) Station standards
5) Terms of railway pension scheme(s)
6) Number of staff they are allowed to have

Then you have local authorities paying for (out of DfT transport funding and council tax):

1) Enhanced timetable in their area
2) More seats on certain services
3) Improved station facilities
4) Integrated Ticketing, e.g. PTE seasons etc.

Then surely the government may as well run it themselves and take 100% of the profits and save the estimated £100million spent by the DfT on just arranging a single franchise bidding process?

Why exactly do we need First/Arriva/Stagecoach etc, when the government can do it itself. They are even doing quite a good job of East Coast! Better than NXEC!

Being a state-owned company also allows a company to become more transparent, (Freedom of Information Act applies etc), and customers are able to review what's going on internally, and where money is being spent - and rightly question things if necessary.