Rail Express Magazine - 283 - December 2019 Back Issue

Rail Express Magazine 283 - December 2019 Back Issue

English

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The election gun was fired as this issue went to press and, while the parties’ official manifestos were still to be published, the two biggest hinted at their views on how our railways should be run. Both the Conservatives and Labour want to move away from the current franchising model, which they see as broken, and both also want to set up a new body to oversee operations. They disagree, however, on how that should be done.

The Conservatives are in favour of private companies running passenger services under fixed fee contracts, which transfers much of the financial risk to the Government – risk that has increasingly put off private firms from bidding for franchises in the face of shrinking profit margins.

The contracts approach is a kind of ‘backdoor’ nationalisation, but Labour is more in favour of full nationalisation – rolling back the 25 years since Privatisation and recreating something like British Rail. Whichever approach you favour, and each has arguments for and against, either case will see the Government take on even more day-to- day control. And the problem with that is

Governments of both colours have not had a great track record on this over the past couple of decades.

Rail Express

283 - December 2019 The election gun was fired as this issue went to press and, while the parties’ official manifestos were still to be published, the two biggest hinted at their views on how our railways should be run. Both the Conservatives and Labour want to move away from the current franchising model, which they see as broken, and both also want to set up a new body to oversee operations. They disagree, however, on how that should be done. The Conservatives are in favour of private companies running passenger services under fixed fee contracts, which transfers much of the financial risk to the Government – risk that has increasingly put off private firms from bidding for franchises in the face of shrinking profit margins. The contracts approach is a kind of ‘backdoor’ nationalisation, but Labour is more in favour of full nationalisation – rolling back the 25 years since Privatisation and recreating something like British Rail. Whichever approach you favour, and each has arguments for and against, either case will see the Government take on even more day-to- day control. And the problem with that is Governments of both colours have not had a great track record on this over the past couple of decades.

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