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UK Rail services to come under unified state control

bbc.com

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Re: UK Rail services to come under unified state control

#3

Post by rich_sasha »

This sounds like many niceties, BUT the elephant in the room is the utterly uncompetitive way private contractors are chosen to run the routes, and as a result, high prices / low quality of the actual journeys. Operators have a nice oligopoly on the routes, with barely any competition for tenders.

One example is that different routes have different hardware requirements. And guess what, the only provider who has the right kit available immediately is the one whose contract is just expiring. Please name your price and sign on the dotted line.

Re: UK Rail services to come under unified state control

#4

Post by bennyp101 »

rich_sasha wrote: post #3

This sounds like many niceties, BUT the elephant in the room is the utterly uncompetitive way private contractors are chosen to run the routes, and as a result, high prices / low quality of the actual journeys. Operators have a nice oligopoly on the routes, with barely any competition for tenders. One example is that different routes have different hardware requirements. And guess what, the only provider who has the…

One would hope that being a single entity at the top, they would be able to help negotiate better rates around the country .. but then as it is a government project it will probably end up more expensive!

Re: UK Rail services to come under unified state control

#7

Post by cies »

And so the privatization experiment come to an end. Bye bye Thatcherism. I hope this silly belief in the cure-all of "small govt" will die with it.

Sure govt's should not supply all food, or luxury good, or ... But public transport, schools, hospitals, ...

I think we should make a good set of rules by which we can decide which typed of biz should be in private hands, and what we prefer public.

The Fed, Blackwater, prisons, rail, hospitals, banks... What could possibly go wrong?

Re: UK Rail services to come under unified state control

#8

Post by rich_sasha »

bennyp101 wrote: post #4
rich_sasha wrote: post #3

This sounds like many niceties, BUT the elephant in the room is the utterly uncompetitive way private contractors are chosen to run the routes, and as a result, high prices / low quality of the actual journeys. Operators have a nice oligopoly on the routes, with barely any competition for tenders. One example is that different routes have different hardware requirements. And guess what, the only provider who has the…

One would hope that being a single entity at the top, they would be able to help negotiate better rates around the country .. but then as it is a government project it will probably end up more expensive!

I read the article with that question in mind, it doesn’t mention any changes to sourcing the contractors.

Re: UK Rail services to come under unified state control

#10

Post by leskat »

cies wrote: post #7

And so the privatization experiment come to an end. Bye bye Thatcherism. I hope this silly belief in the cure-all of "small govt" will die with it. Sure govt's should not supply all food, or luxury good, or ... But public transport, schools, hospitals, ... I think we should make a good set of rules by which we can decide which typed of biz should be in private hands, and what we prefer public. The Fed, Blackwater, pr…

For what it's worth, even Thatcher thought rail privatisation was "a privatisation too far" [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatisation_of_British_Rail#...

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