Just over 17 years after the Railways Act (1993) came into force on April 1st, 1994, a movement is gathering steam demanding that the chaotic privatisation of the UK’s rail network be reversed.
The Bring Back British Rail campaign is a grass-roots effort led by disgruntled traveller Ellie Harrison to renationalise BR-that-was, and hopefully bring an end to the inefficient and often chaotic mess that, along with gutted former industrial regions, remains one of the 1979-1997 Conservative governments most visible and enduring legacies.
The story of the privatisation of BR would befit a Shakespearean tragedy, and is far to long to recant here, but perhaps the worst part is what happened afterwards.In the decades following the “Beeching Axe” the congestion, inefficiencies and social disruptions caused by road traffic became clear, and BR enjoyed a period of sustained investment and modernisation, most prominently the introduction of the HST on the newly created InterCity 125 services, the Merseyrail commuter network in Liverpool the electrification of the East Coast Mainline and subsequent introduction of the InterCity 225. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, some line and stations closed under the Beeching Axe were re-opened, as were several new “Parkway” and airport links.
With privatisation, virtually all strategic direction for the network evaporated as the system fragmented into a myriad of companies and franchises with overlapping, often unclear, responsibilities, most with few tangible assets (the rail operating “franchises” don’t even own the rolling stock they use) and many with chronically unstable finances. BR’s electrification programme ground to a halt and maintenance became increasingly patchy, until a series of disasters caused by defective equipment forced the government to take back control of he track, but left the passenger facing side of operations in the hands of privateers as a fragmented, confusing mess.
Furthermore, the breaking up of British Rail Engineering Ltd. (the rolling stock design and construction department of BR) led to the fragmentation and draining away of a large amount of highly skilled engineering know-how. When this combined with the complete lack of orders for new rolling stock caused by the drying up of investment by the newly created leasing companies in their rolling stock, much of the industrial base that supporgted BR-that-was rapidly collapsed, taking thousands of jobs and suppliers with it. In just over a decade, the UK has gone from having a significant number of rail construction businesses located accross the country, to a solitary factory in Derby, owned by Canadian engineering giant Bombadier, whom are currently on the verge of pulling the plug on this solitary relic of an industry that in much of the world is enjoying rapid growth.
By the early 2000s the situation had deterioated to the point that even getting a comprehensive printed timetable for a route that had more than a single operator became a nightmare, as each company printed their own flimsy leaflets that often left out competing services, whilst fares became, and remain, completely confused, with a journey from Lodnon to Manchester costing anything from £8 to almost £200 for the same seat on the same train.
In such a chaotic situation, Harrison’s position seems not only understandable, but is possibly the only reasonable solution to a hastily conceived and badly implemented policy driven not by a reasonable assessment of the issues facing BR in the 1990s, but by an push to drive through an ideologically motivated action by a weak government that was haemorrhaging support.
And we wonder why we have a culture of “binge flying”! Eastern Airways, when I look at Virgin Trains, I remember how much I love thee!
Tags: bombadier, BREL, Bring Back British Rail, British Rail, capitalism, Current Affairs, derby, Ellie Harrison, infrastructure, nationalisation, nationalise, network rail, passenger rail, privateers, privatisation, public transport, rail transport, railtrack, renationalisation, renationalisation of british rail, sustainable development, United Kingdom
