Ben Elton: The Great Railway Disaster
Privatisation of British Rail
New Opportunities for the Railways: The Privatisation of
Why Britain's Railway Privatization Failed
British Rail (Privatisation) (Hansard, 14 July 1992)
What if...British Rail had never been privatised?
- "British Railways (BR) had been in state ownership since 1948, under the control of the British Railways Board (BRB). Under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher elected in 1979, various state-owned businesses were sold off, including various functions related to the railways – Sealink ferries and British Transport Hotels by 1984, Travellers Fare catering by 1988 and British Rail Engineering Limited (train building) by 1989.
- It was under Thatcher's successor John Major that the railways themselves were privatised, using the Railways Act 1993. The operations of the BRB were broken up and sold off, with various regulatory functions transferred to the newly created office of the Rail Regulator. Ownership of the infrastructure including the larger stations passed to Railtrack, while track maintenance and renewal assets were sold to 13 companies across the network. Ownership of passenger trains passed to three rolling stock companies(ROSCOs) – the stock being leased out to passenger train operating companies (TOCs) awarded contracts through a new system of rail franchising overseen by the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF). Ownership and operation of rail freight in Great Britainpassed to two companies – English Welsh & Scottish (EWS) and Freightliner, less than the originally intended six, although there are considerably more now.
- The process was very controversial at the time, and still is, and the result of its impact is hotly debated. Despite opposition from the Labour Party, who gained power in 1997 under Tony Blair, the process has never been reversed wholesale by any later government, and the system has remained largely unaltered although it is being transitioned to Great British Railways, a contract-based model replacing the franchise system. A significant change came in 2001 with the collapse of Railtrack, which saw its assets passed to the state-owned Network Rail (NR), with track maintenance also brought in-house under NR in 2004. The regulatory structures have also subsequently changed."
This subject is not simple, I have a more negative view of this.
So as I watch this, it just said about costing £63.3 billion more, I think that was a waste of money and the ticket prices have gone up too much (still ticket prices are not simple?), but may be some people think it was worth that price?
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