• Aux@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    You’re wrong. First of all, competition does work in Europe. Second - all railways in the UK are 100% nationalised. And that’s why they suck so hard.

      • Aux@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        They are 100% nationalised since 1940-s. The government has full control over infrastructure, fares, stock, routes and literally everything else.

        • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          In the UK, as in the United Kingdom? Our railways were privatised in 1997. They’ve become so bad, there is talk of renationalising them.

          Technically, some of our railways are owned by the governments of other countries (I think France and Germany amongst others) - but not our own.

          • Aux@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            They are 100% owned by the British government. There’s nothing privatised in the UK and never was. And that’s why they suck so hard.

            As for German involvement - the British government just outsourced day to day operations to Germans and others. Just like they outsource No. 10 floor wiping. That doesn’t mean that No. 10 is privatised. It’s the choice of the government and that’s how they decided to spend their budget.

            • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
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              1 year ago

              I mean… it’s literally not - we obviously have some fundamental misunderstanding between us and neither of is going to get our point across to the other, so I’ll simply agree “The railways are currently shittier than they should be” :)

              • Aux@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Not sure how there can be any misunderstanding. It’s just a fact that British railways are nationalised. It is also quite obvious that privatisation and deregulation works really well as we have a good example from the EU and Japan. Oh, speaking of EU, this privatisation and deregulation was one of the key points for many Labour voters to support Brexit.

                • fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
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                  1 year ago

                  I’m not sure either! British Rail was literally, factually privatised and sold off to a lot of different private companies, over a few years running up until 1997. It has not been re-nationalised since. I can’t understand how you wouldn’t be aware of that, unless your view on what nationalised and privatised means is different than the news/dictionary/encyclopaedia/anyone else.

                  The railways were nationalised between 1948 and 1997, but it’s currently 2023 - and unless you’re from a parallel universe where Neil Kinnock won, they haven’t been nationalised for two and a half decades now.

                  Worth taking statistics with a pinch of salt, but apparently after a couple of decades of underperforming privatised service, the UK population is overwhelmingly (across both sides of the political spectrum) in support of re-nationalising the railways.

                  • Aux@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    Who sets the fares? The government (through DfT).

                    Who owns the infrastructure? The government (through Network Rail).

                    Who decides which routes to run and how? The government (through Rail Delivery Group).

                    Who is managing the ticketing? The government (through Rail Delivery Group).

                    Who decides which companies to hire to run day to day operations and how much to pay them? The government (through DfT).

                    What is privatised exactly? Once again, British railways are 100% nationalised. This is just a fact. And this is the only reason why they are so poor. The so called “privatisation” never really happened, what happened is that the government created a scapegoat to blame all their failures on. And they stole a lot of tax payer money along the way. Just like it ALWAYS happens with nationalised industries.