I've just found out that a campaign was recently launched to bring back British Rail. I know there are some people on here who will sympathise with this, so please make your way over here:

http://www.bringbackbritishrail.org/

I've ordered some stickers to use in the local area and intend to help in any way I can. Anything you could do to help would no doubt be appreciated!

No thanks.

Do you even remember BR?

Only just.

Why??

It's not going to happen.

Do you?

The way I remember, they were more laughing stock than rolling stock.

Same goes for BT, and to a lesser degree the water and energy boards. The privatised industries have a lot of problems and could be improved a great deal, but it's hard to imagine anyone under 40 wanting the old ways back unless they suffered from dementia.

The biggest problem with all these services comes in the more remote areas. This is where regulation is required to make rural services reliable and affordable. If people in the remote parts of Scotland had to pay the true price for providing them with water, gas, electric, buses, post and phone then it would be hundreds of thousands per household. For this reason alone, "essential services" need to be regulated and cross-subsidised. Either that, or people need to accept that living in remote areas will leave them cut off. The latter choice is the more natural, but not popular.

Next time you catch a train to London, remember half your fair is subsidising someone else.

There's a lot to be said for an integrated rail network. Goodbye advance tickets and extortionate on-the-day fares, hello to improved services outside of major commuter routes and on off-peak travel.

Punctuality was better under BR, and that's not even accounting for the extra TEN MINUTES today's private companies get before a train is deemed "late". Private rail in this country is a sham, this government SPENDS MORE on subsidising the "private" rail network than previous governments did on BR!! Don't take my word for it, check the figures and regular stories in the "Signal Failure" section in Private Eye.

Public ownership and running of "natural" monopolies such as railways makes sense. Just ask the French, Germans, Swedish, Norwegians, Swiss etc.

I do remember BR very well. You can't beat an Intercity in swallow livery IMO.

Totally agree until the rail infrastructure and the users ( train companies ) of it are all under one management then it will always be a mess.

And where exactly do you think the tax payer is going to get the money from to buy back the rolling stock, invest in new stock and compensate the companies for loss of revenue?
The only way would be to not renew each franchise when it runs out. But if we did that the companies wouldn't invest any money between now and then.

RE-OPEN THE COAL MINES!!!!

Fine them for bad service That should bea anice revenue earner.
Wasnt it connex south central that had its franchise pulled due to bad service and actually then had the best service it ever had whilst it was "nationlised"?

Yay! Maybe I can get my old job back.

We don't have to worry about the environmental impact anymore, we're going to have fake trees that suck up the carbon emissions from the air. clicky

Sorry Linux, but British Rail were bloody awful. I don't have a better idea, the current system is obviously rubbish. But believe it or not, it is better than what used to exist.

Oh I dunno - how about they stop offering our European colleagues housing and then paying them housing benefit to live in them. They could also not pay them dole money for not working and stop paying £140 per hour (plus expenses) for interpreters because they choose to live in a country where their language is hardly spoken. This would however have an unfortunate knock-on effect to our drinks industry but with the Government tasked with reducing alcoholism related 'incidents' I see this as a win/win situation. And besides, everything Goggs Broon does and says is right..... right???

As for compensation for loss of revenue, if I bought your company I certainly wouldn't pay you any more because you have stopped earning a wage!!!!

Now to the original question - not a good idea to bring back BR. Mind you, this lot aren't doing much better

Al

My plan for better railways:
1) Increase franchise length. That way companies know they'll make money even if they invest a lot in new rolling stock.
2) Longer trains. Some railways are near capacity in terms on the number of trains that can run on them. Make platforms and trains longer.
3) Widen some railways from 2 to 4 tracks. That way fast trains wont get stuck behind ones that stop everywhere.
4) Turn all level crossings into bridges. For some reason a lot of delays I've had have been trains going slowly for faulty level crossings. Plus this stops idiot car drivers causing crashes.

These are all perfectly do-able.
The following suggestions might not be:

5) Build a few high speed Inductrack Maglev lines.
One from Cornwall to London. This would boost tourism from Europe and take strain off the nightmare that is the A30 and the traffic jams caused by where it drops to single carriageway.
One from London to Scotland. Not sure what route would be best, maybe the east coast as there are less hills in the way.
6) Electrify all commuter lines as diesels are noisy and inefficient.