http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... east-coast

Don't know anything about them, but I like the idea of it.

Wouldn't permanent state ownership fall foul of EU laws?

It may depend on how far removed from the state the company is.
I would have to agree, as mentioned in the article, that it would be a bit odd if state owned/backed rail companies from other EU states could bid to run the ECML but on from the UK couldn't.

Living in Peterborough and using East Coast occasionally I have to say they've certainly made big improvements in staffing at Peterborough station. For one thing you can actually find station staff to ask questions and they even seem to be vaguely interested in helping people.

It makes sense as a plan, although it did 10 years ago when Gordon Brown refused to consider it (possibly a different line).

I'd probably go further given the option and require one major line to be run by a state owned enterprise (a type of company I generally disapprove of), as a trade off to permit more cartel like operation within the industry. Give that open and competitive markets in rail was an annoying fantasy from day 1 that should never have been taken seriously, a proper cartel but with a state owned participant that can blow the whistle on unethical standards and set a baseline for performance might work out. That gives us a way of seeing openly if private operators are delivering any value for money at all - and it gives them a chance of actually doing so.

I'm basing that on a report I read some time ago which implied that much of the waste in the privatised rail system is down to lack of cooperation between the operators. They have little competitive reason not to cooperate by selling services to each other, filling in for each others service gaps and so on. But they don't do it because it would look like misbehaviour to the regulators.

Set it up as a not for profit Co with the goverment holding a "golden share"

That way it can act like a prive Co, raising funds etc but you set its Company & franchise goals around Service and value for money

The Golden share allows the goverment to stop the senior management paying themselves to much and as a not for profit there is no drain of funds to shareholders