The LNER is back!

The LNER is back, the east coast franchise has collapsed, again.

LNER to run East Coast Mainline services from London to Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland

Tony

The LNER was a private company that ran an integrated transport system.
What's back is the LNER's name being besmirched by the state run shambles that was British Rail.
John K

John K said:

The LNER was a private company that ran an integrated transport system.
What's back is the LNER's name being besmirched by the state run shambles that was British Rail.
John K

Click to expand...

I’m sure that last sentence came out wrong. The shambles is the way successive Tory (and "New Labour") governments have mishandled privatisation. Granted, using LNER for the new re-re-nationalised lines - which, I am sure we all remember, the last time they were under government control were making a profit and paying into the Exchequer until they were arbitrarily privatised again by the current lot of Herberts in Westminster - could be seen to besmirch the former company name. One, perhaps, might say the same for Southern Railway.

Heather Kay said:

I’m sure that last sentence came out wrong. The shambles is the way successive Tory (and "New Labour") governments have mishandled privatisation. Granted, using LNER for the new re-re-nationalised lines - which, I am sure we all remember, the last time they were under government control were making a profit and paying into the Exchequer until they were arbitrarily privatised again by the current lot of Herberts in Westminster - could be seen to besmirch the former company name. One, perhaps, might say the same for Southern Railway.

Click to expand...

I fully agree Heather. I think it is often forgotten that a significant amount of the cost of the ECML electrification was paid for by profits generated under BR.

I used the railways a lot at the tail-end of BR and the descriptions of the network used by those who wanted an excuse to privatise them [and ride their own gravy-trains into the process] was one that I simply did not recognise from my own travelling experience throughout the 1980s. One friend who was a BR Area Manager at the time said to me that on privatisation, the first thing they did was to sack anyone who knew anything about running a railway!

Buying a ticket wasn't the needing a degree process that it is today either. You just turned up at the station, told the booking clerk where you wanted to go and very roughly when you wanted to return, and guess what? You got a ticket! No price penalty for travelling then and there and you could break your journey, and continue on without re-booking - and, provided it was within the time period, come back when you wanted. Sort of like an integrated transport system.

The sooner it is all taken back into public ownership the better IMHO, at least on the passenger side.

DJP/MMP

Strangely the Eye has been predicting this for a while. According to the Eye both companies involved have a history of bailing out of the franchise at the point when the government subsidy draws to a close and the companies involved have to start to pay back to the Government. The chances of something sensible happening while Grayling is in charge are vanishingly small. He chose to cancel to a lot of electrification projects and his own departments figures, leaked to the press, show that the new policy will now cost a lot more than completing the electrification.

We should not lose sight of the fact that the taxpayer subsidy to the rail industry has more than quadrupled since privatisation. It seems the private sector is very good at lining its directors' and shareholders' pockets but less good at providing a service to the public. The whole rail privatisation farago has been a mess from beginning to end, though I dare say the lawyers are happy. End it now.

This has been on the cards for months it was just a matter of when. As a regular commuter on Northern Rail (and East Coast to a lesser degree) it doesn't matter to me who runs the trains providing they are clean and punctual.

Wagonman said:

The whole rail privatisation farago has been a mess from beginning to end,

Click to expand...

The same could be said for the utility companies and buses. At the end of the day, however how sentimental we may be, privatisation is unlikely to be reversed.

Yorkshire Dave said:

This has been on the cards for months it was just a matter of when. As a regular commuter on Northern Rail (and East Coast to a lesser degree) it doesn't matter to me who runs the trains providing they are clean and punctual.



The same could be said for the utility companies and buses. At the end of the day, however how sentimental we may be, privatisation is unlikely to be reversed.

Click to expand...

Indeed it could, with knobs on! Privatisation can, and must, be reversed and given sufficient political will – and no more defeatism – it could happen!

I watched one of Dan Snow's programmes on Britain's Railways last night and in 1914 over 670 trains travelling to the South coast (Dover/Folkstone) in support of the BEF arrived on time.....or were early ! Can't see that happening now in the 21st Century. It's ridiculous. Privatisation can work when there is competition, but with the franchises we have now it seems they can't be bothered. It all went to pot when we became customers instead of passengers.

The LNER may well be back, but if it's anything like the 'new' GWR, then there's little to shout about.

Lancastrian said:

Privatisation can work when there is competition, but with the franchises we have now it seems they can't be bothered. It all went to pot when we became customers instead of passengers.

Click to expand...

This privatisation nonsense is a chimera. It does not work, and cannot work, with vital public utilities like the railways, water etc which are natural monopolies. Thanks to the idiocy of rail privatisation operating costs in this country are up to 40% higher than elsewhere in Europe and it's the taxpayers and fare-payers that have to pay for it. What we need is a fully integrated system of transport run for the benefit of the community, not shareholders and greedy fat-cat executives. Rant over...for now.