Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.
Last week, the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 was passed by the government which allows them to take rail contracts back into public ownership. With this, a new arms length government body named Great British Railways (GBR) will take over service contracts held by private companies as they expire in the coming years. Furthermore, the government intends to transfer the responsibility of maintaining rail infrastructure from Network Rail to GBR in due course.
Privatisation of train services was implemented in the 1990s and since then, rail usage has increased. However, there have been issues with fares and reliability leading some to criticise privatisation as the cause of an inefficient and fragmented system. Labour promised to renationalise most rail services within five years as part of their manifesto. The coronavirus pandemic led to the government taking temporary control of the railways, leading most train companies to move onto fixed fee contracts.
As of now, four major operators – East Coast Mainline, TransPennine, Northern and South Eastern – have been taken under public control and are being run by the government’s operator of last resort. Transport for Wales was brought under Welsh Government control in 2021 and Scotrail was taken over by the Scottish Government the following year. South Western Railway is a significant commuter service into London and operates over a vast area of southern England, with over 1,500 services running per weekday in south west London and the surrounding regions.
In summary, the new act allows the government to take back rail contracts under public ownership, with plans to transfer maintenance and infrastructure responsibilities to Great British Railways in the future. While there has been criticism of privatisation, it was only made a manifesto pledge to renationalise most rail services within five years by Labour. The government took temporary control during the pandemic with most train companies moving to fixed fee contracts. Several major operators have already been brought under public control and are being run by the government, while South Western Railway remains in private hands for now
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
Auto Amazon Links: No products found. Blocked by captcha.