Railtrack attacked ... and destroyed

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What would have been the big news story of the day, but for Operation Enduring Freedom (ugh!) - the UK Government seeks and obtains a winding up order for Railtrack. The plan now seems to be to reconstitute it as a non-profit making organisation in which employee unions and passenger watchdogs will have a say. A gob-smacking about-face IMHO.

So, was Blair right to pull the plug at this particular moment? Is this the end of privatisation for a while? Should some of the train operating companies also be brought back into a form of public ownership?

― Jeff, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(under) NEW (ownership)

― Jeff, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My opinion of the railway ownership issue has always been that it is a red herring with regard to the levels of service available to the passenger. The railways were in public hands until the 1980s and they were crap and they were privatised and they were still crap. The core issue is not who owns the railways, but how well they are run and how much investment they get. Elderly people might talk of the halcyon days of the Big Four companies in the age of steam, but LMS, LNER, GWR and SR received quite substantial government subsidies, even though they were private companies.

Blair had to pull the plug - the company had collapsed.

― MarkH, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Blair was only right to pull the plug if he introduces shitloads of new funding. Otherwise, there'll still clearly be a problem as underfunding was killing the railways. Also, I believe there should be less companies with longer contracts to enable them to actually, like, introduce new trains (down here it's SouthWest Trains, who had new trains ready to go for ages but couldn't because they didn't know if their contract would expire or not). Less companies because it is ridiculous subcontracting everything.
Clearly privatisation with subsidies is the only way to go, then!

― Bill, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Jeff is right that this seems big. BUT the whole thing remains an barmy as ever. A new 'private' company will be formed by the govt - so why shouldn't it be 'public'? It will be chaired by... the head of Railtrack. Surely that really is barmy.

This is or was a chance to get it right, but thanks to the usual anti-public dogmatism it will not be taken.

― the pinefox, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

is it a private company tho? on tv last night they (ie someone whose name i forget) were saying it would NOT have shareholders, and would instead be accountable to stakeholders (inc. the passengewrs, who pay for 60% blah blah).

Clip of Blair on loop repeat, stating that privatisation had been a catastrophe for the railways: wartime = classic moment of possibility for reinstatement of old-time corproate centrism...

― mark s, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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