UK train operator nationalised by government after 30 years of privatisation

Comments

• Kyrgizion@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’m sure that “certain people” got very rich in those 30 years, which was the actual goal.

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  • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Ah yes, “those expressing ideologies other than mine don’t actually believe them”

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    • Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You sure you commented in the right place? In the context of comment you replied to your comment makes no sense.

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• khannie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Quick, hook Thatcher up to a magnet for infinite electricity. She’s spinning so fast we could end climate change.

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  • mjr@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    To be fair, not even Thatcher dared attempt rail service privatisation. It was her disciple Major who pushed it through and enthusiastically promoted battling business units on rails in Brussels.

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    • khannie@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Ah my bad. I thought most of the privatisation over there was under her. Did she do the water and BT or was that him too?

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    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The privatisation of British Rail did indeed begin under Thatcher, though she did so with reluctance due to the obvious need for ongoing subsidy. Sealink and the hotels were the first parts to go in 1984 (at much less than book value).

      These were swiftly followed by a laundry company set up for the hotels, an internal ad agency, a travel agency, and the Vale of Rheidol railway which was privatised in 1989.

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  • addie@feddit.uk ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    So much piss on her grave that it’s now a designated protected wetlands, home to birds and animals found nowhere else in the UK. Afraid that we can’t dig her up again. Beautiful place to visit; have a couple of bottles of water before you go.

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  • yakko@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    She would cotton on and stop spinning straightaway

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• BilboBargains@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Just got back from Cordoba, Spain, a journey of 1800km. The first 1700km took 6 hours on a combination of Spainish light rail, high speed rail and a flight. The remaining 100km took 5 hours on a combination of three British trains, with a total of 3.5 hours of delays.

  Our trains are now easily the worst and most expensive trains I have travelled on anywhere in the world.

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  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Our trains are now easily the worst and most expensive trains I have travelled on anywhere in the world.

    Amtrak has entered the chat.

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    • GenXLiberal@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Partner and I took Amtrak from Seattle to San Diego (roughly 2,000km apart)

      The Amtrak trip took over 40hours and was easily 5x the price of flying.

      I strongly support trains and travel options aside from driving and flying but goddamn has the US implemented rail travel in the worst way.

      This was a while back, over a decade ago and I’d love to hear if its improved any.)

      All told, the views of the west coast were spectacular and relaxing but still not enough to make up for the time/cost.

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  • GardenGeek@europe.pub ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    You should visit Germany then… I’m willing to bet our DB train service is worse!

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    • fx242@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I never understood the complain of DB (and overall German trains), but I only use them once a year. Now for the ticket selling machines… Wtf designed these, they are easily the worst customer experience I’ve ever got on a ticket machine ever! Also the app. Why??

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    • Pringles@sopuli.xyz ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I have taken the train in many countries, and Germany was one of the weirdest experiences because I expected deutsche Gründlichkeit and got one of the shittiest ticketing machines imaginable, then boarded a train after over an hour of waiting because all trains were delayed, but was told off for having the wrong ticket because it was a direct train and I bought a ticket for the snail train, which I didn’t know was a thing. The train stations were clean though.

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    • zwerg@feddit.org ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I regularly use both. British trains are much worse than DB. Thats not to say DB as great, but there is at least a high speed network. The UK has… St Pancras to Folkestone, about 100km. Oh, and large parts of it aren’t high speed at all.

      DB is also much clearer about engineering work (of which there is a lot at the moment…), recent experience landing at Stanstead suggest its a pot luck whether there will be a train or a chaotic bus replaceme service. The fractured nature of the British system really doesn’t help - where do I even go to check the status when there are so many operators. Who even operates that line?

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    • MrPoletki@feddit.uk ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      bro, you have double decker trains.

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  • Armand1@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Lets hope it improves, though I’m not holding my breath.

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• dropdrip@lemmy.ml ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Much destruction and waste for… nothing. Can everyone agree that neoliberalism was a grift that now needs to end? (I already see one commenter defending it as something else.) I don’t live in the U.K., but I’ve heard of councils turning streetlights off and reducing their services because they have ‘no money’. From the outside looking in it looks bleak.

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  • Armand1@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    But think about all the business people we enriched! That was really worth it imo. /s

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• elgordino@fedia.io ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Despite all the problems caused by privatisation generally, Chiltern Railways are considered to be one of the success stories. Turning round a failing line into a more reliable and higher frequency service.

  Let’s hope GBR can continue to build on these improvements.

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  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I’m a progressive but i am open to privatisation where it makes sense. The privatisation of public transit in UK seem to be successful. I’m in Ireland and the public transport here is shocking so I look to UK and I think it might not be a bad idea to privatise some routes. That being said, there is a fear of private transport companies cancelling unprofitable routes, especially in rural areas. Which in that case, the publicly funded buses or rails should remain servicing isolated areas.

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    • ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Privatisation was a disaster for buses, particularly in rural communities. It was a huge error in almost all cases for rail.

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• Smaile@lemmy.ca ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Fuckin good

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• jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I thought they were nationalizing the conductor at first.

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  • Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    “Dave belongs to -all- of us.”

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  • MrPoletki@feddit.uk ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Don’t worry, this guy is still in charge. Image

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• CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  This December it’s Great Western Rail! Literally anything would be an improvement over what rail’s been since COVID!

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  • ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Funny you should bring that up, as that’s why the railways were effectively nationalised in 2020. This is the paperwork phase.

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    • CumbrianCucumber@lemmy.world ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Fantastic, may the paperwork phase bring through some nice improvements!

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• nothingcorporate@lemmy.today ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  🤘

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• notaviking@lemmy.world ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Jeez as a South African looking at our own nationalised train/railway service, called Transnet, all I can say is good luck Britain, really hope you do not follow our footsteps, please learn from us. Luckily thanks to all it’s failures the government has started privatisation of certain parts with amazing success, similar to our Nationalised electricity provider Eskom being forced to allow private generation into the grid. Hopefully Britain has systems in place to ensure there isn’t anything like corruption that loots funds through connected businesses or putting incompetent people loyal to the ruling party in charge as a form of rent seeking.

  Good luck Britain, hopefully yours turns out great, like how I am hoping for privatisation to turn our railways around

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