cockneycarparkm32
Well-Known Member
Its not broke if you are a shareholder , getting bailed out by central govt. to pay private shareholders .
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Labour plan to part re-nationalise rail network
- Thread starter roaminblue
- Start date
malg said:A good vote winner for all those who have no idea how utterly shit British Rail was.
GDM pre-empted this ridiculous argument. Why would a state run business use the model from 40 years ago?
It's a simple enough choice for rail users. Do you prefer the railways to be run for profit by private firms and all those profits paid out each year to the shareholders? Or for a state run railway to reduce the profits by keeping fares down and reinvesting the surplus in improving the railways?
I can't really see how anybody who but the shareholders themselves would opt for the former.
Although I'm very wary of Labours pledge. As they made the same promise in their manifesto for Blairs first government and then seemed to forget about it for the next ten years. Only to think it's a good idea again as soon as they were in opposition.
urmston
Well-Known Member
British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
toffee balls
Well-Known Member
^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Don't like plastic socialism me , only arseholes believe in it.
without a dream
Well-Known Member
urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Have you ever been to Germany?
metalblue
Well-Known Member
toffee balls said:^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Don't like plastic socialism me , only arseholes believe in it.
Tbf it has cost the taxpayer more in subsidies but passenger numbers did increase back to the pre-nationalised level we last saw 100 years ago (when it was truly privatised). What we have is effectively private monopolies who don't seem to have any incentive to invest in stock. We should either have a completely nationalised rail service or completely privatised but certainly not what we have now.
One last point regarding strikes we've not done too bad in that regard with network rail since it became a not-for-profit company [the proposal] over a decade ago if memory serves me well.
nijinsky's fetlocks
Well-Known Member
toffee balls said:^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Don't like plastic socialism me , only arseholes believe in it.
Is National Socialism is more your thing?
urmston
Well-Known Member
without a dream said:urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Have you ever been to Germany?
Yes.
Everything is run more efficiently in Germany than here whether nationalised or not.
It is ridiculous and illogical to assume that nationalisation of our railways would cause them to be as efficient as German ones.
Our nationalised railways were dreadful. Our privatised railways are less dreadful. Things have improved.
without a dream
Well-Known Member
urmston said:without a dream said:urmston said:British Rail were certainly 'not or profit'.
They lost millions, and the taxpayer footed the bill.
The trains were ancient, slow and late.
The staff went on strike regularly, just like public sector staff often do today.
Anyone who thinks nationalisation is a good idea is either too young go remember the bad old days or a railway employee who fancies the easy life with the state as boss, a monopoly of their business and all the freedom to strike and generally give poor service these things allow.
Have you ever been to Germany?
Yes.
Everything is run more efficiently in Germany than here whether nationalised or not.
It is ridiculous and illogical to assume that nationalisation of our railways would cause them to be as efficient as German ones.
Our nationalised railways were dreadful. Our privatised railways are less dreadful. Things have improved.
It's equally ridiculous to assume that nationalised railways are terrible though. Since 'privatisation' we spend more public money on the railways. That's outrageous, we're literally funding private companies profits with taxpayers money.