What's going on with Britain's rail network?
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- Britain's railways are certainly in a tumultuous time at the moment, with strikes, cuts and uncertainty beleaguering its recovery from the pandemic. But why is all of this happening, and what will we need to do to get back on track?
Discord: / discord
00:00 Introduction
00:44 1. British Rail
06:12 2. Privatisation
10:12 3. The Pandemic
12:06 4. The Present
24:19 Credits
Photography:
Barry Lewis, JThomas, Steve Eason, Hugh Llewelyn, Stephen Burton, PAUL FARMER, Ben Brooksbank, The Basingstoker, Jeremy Segrott, Gillett's Crossing, Steve Knight, Michael Pead, Graham Richardson, Stephen Craven, calflier001, Number 10, Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street, Hunter Desportes, Martin Addison, Ian Rob, citytransportinfo and Jaggery, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Business Live
committees.parliament.uk/writ...
www.orr.gov.uk/search-news/br....
Community Rail Lancashire
www.gov.uk/government/publica...
Smithdo43172, Mutney, IPLManagement, Chris McKenna (Thryduulf), Adam37, Absolutelypuremilk, Spudgun67, Geof Sheppard, G-13114, Vanillalatte1, Endim8, John Robert McPherson and Seth Whales, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., Nilfanion, via Wikimedia Commons
John Winder / "Stop HS2" poster
Ben Brooksbank / Dunford Bridge, new station and signalbox under construction
Ben Brooksbank / Steam at Manchester Victoria in 1953: two 2-6-4Ts and two 0-6-0s
LSE Library, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
Ben Brooksbank / Up electrically-hauled train of new motor-cars on WCML at Hartford Junction
Ben Brooksbank / Preston Station: locomotive at north end of Platform 5 by Fishergate Bridge,
Alan Murray Rust / Electric hauled train at Euston, 1966
Ben Brooksbank / Paddington Station, with holiday crowds
Chris McAndrew, Rept0n1x, Nick Clegg, Hitachi Rail, Tagishsimon, Richard Townshend, Cnbrb, Virgin Trains East Coast and David Woolfall, CC BY 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons
Science Museum Group. Ernest Marples opens the M1 motorway. 1983-5236/31277Science Museum Group Collection Online. Accessed July 17, 2023.
collection.sciencemuseumgroup....
Cover Collecting
Network Rail
Rosser, Sharon Farmer, Hassocks5489 and Great Western Railway Magazine, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Peter Moore / Advie Station - long after Beeching's axe fell....
Earthbound
Oxana Maher / Memorial garden, Great Heck
Ben Brooksbank / Southall Rail Crash, 1997
Tom Leveson Gower, Office of Rail and Road and UK Government, OGL 3 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/do..., via Wikimedia Commons
Paul Miller, Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons
Spitalfields Life
Roy Gray / Alton Station
UniSouth
RMT
Andrew Smithers
UK Parliament
UK Government
Simon Walker / HM Treasury
Music:
Can I tell you a Secret - TrackTribe
Side Steppin' - Otis McDonald
Hard Times Come Again No More - The Westerlies
Drop the Tapes - TrackTribe
The Trapezist - Quincas Moreira
Some corrections and clarifications:
- 6:57 - The contracter responsible, Jarvis, actually remained until a further derailment in 2003.
- 7:40 - A portion of Chiltern's £600m was spent after their purchase by Arriva.
- 14:05 - This is not the case across all TOCs, many have already included Sundays as part of the working week. However, many do still operate via overtime and the disputes have focussed on them.
Hi, I was wondering if you have been on the Caledonian Sleeper before?
I've been on one of sleeperish trains the northern explorer Auckland to Wellington
@@funnygallie7863 the night riviaria is where its at
When quading the existing lines, you correctly said that the gaps between trains would increase, but you forgot to mention that, that would only have to be on the fast lines & the gaps between the trains on the slow lines can be reduced
@@1701Wren I was referring to an increase in line speeds, not the quading of track. Obviously that would have the effect you describe, but would come at a large cost through urban areas.
Whilst Virgin wasn't perfect, the decision to axe them from the WCML was crazy beyond belief.
They did not want to take on the pension shortfall which was one of the reasons Virgin lost the WCML.
Virgin XC gave us the awful voyager trains. Totally unsuited to long distance travel. Still with us today.
@@andrewlong6438 Agreed, dreadful things that stink of toilets.
@@EM-yk1dw That was a design fault of the Pendos rather than the operator surely.
@@andrewlong6438 Agree regarding XC, the Voyagers plus frequency of service totally inadequate for demand.
British Rail should never have been privatised. It should have been reformed, restructured and proper management installed to run it on modern business lines. The unions should have been taken on too, they oppose everything. And I speak as an ex railwayman of 17 years service.
The “Modern business lines” would be a big ask.
That actually was what was happening under sectorisation. Intercity was run with zero subsidy and made a profit. Network SouthEast was embarking on a programme of modernisation. Why did Chiltern do so well? They started with what was effectively a new railway. The stock was only 3ish years old, the signalling system the same and all the stations had been upgraded. This meant they could concentrate on things like redoubling and augmenting their stock. That was thanks to Network SouthEast's total route modernisation plan. Regional Railways was again modernising and it was acknowledged that it would never be profitable. But it was a railway being run because of social need. British Rail was the most efficient railway on a cost basis in Europe.
Sadly we heard a lot of right wing propaganda.
A really good video and summary. One thing that really sickens my heart as an engineer is how we lost our capability to design, develop and build our own trains. The replacements for the HST are awful from a passenger comfort and interface point of view and they are now developing cracks in them. It feels like successive governments really have trashed our railway capability and have forgotten that railways are all about people and ensuring the economic and now contributing to the environmental wellbeing of the country. It sickens me that our tax payers money goes to maintain private companies profits, with many of them owned by national rail companies from overseas, let along the money given to the rail companies on strike days would have paid for a settled pay deal. It really is a sad state of affairs…
Letting BREL die was criminal
@@OscarOSullivan As was letting the Railway Technical Centre die. It was a wealth of railway engineering research and innovation - they gave us the InterCity 125 HST amongst other technology developments.
@@OscarOSullivanand Metro Cammell! I really took seeing one of those two names on the door plates for granted as a child…
@@kaitlyn__L Cravens coach company
Hitachi Class 800s are fine. Literally only train nerds complain about them
A very interesting review. The Dft is micromanaging the railways and, as you say, they haven’t a clue. Set up GBR or whatever it will be called (British Rail?) and let them make the decisions about ticket offices and one person operation and develop a rolling programme for electrification etc. Railways as a whole bestow benefits to the country that cannot be wholly recouped through fares - the railways, a bit like health and education, will always need government investment.
Trouble is DfT will not give autonomy to GBR or will be reluctant to do so. There are Ministers and and Civil servants who probably enjoy the power. GBR will unlikely to get same freedoms as BR and could end up as a Union Jack branded shell!
Just like roads
"Railways have rendered more services, and have received less gratitude than any other institution in the land" John Bright.
I feel like they do have a clue and that they are deliberately sabotaging it.
The Department for transport removed the Southeastern franchise away from Go-Ahead and despite the financial blunder of not declaring some funds, Go-Ahead had actually done well with Southeastern, so much better than when it was British Rail and million times better than Connex(Veolia), Southeastern ran into a few issues because of the Thameslink programme upgrades at London Bridge and this caused poor satisfaction statistics but apart from that Southeastern was brilliant under Go-Ahead and as soon as DFT took over it went downhill very quickly. Late,dirty trains,staff shortages, and employees resigning on mass and mass fare evasion plus station facilities run down and always closed like waiting rooms and toilets. Now they want to close down all the ticket offices when Go-Ahead kept them open at least a few hours everyday.
I love all those people saying “just improve capacity on WCML!” as an “alternative” to HS2, when that’s exactly the point of HS2.
And as you say there’s basically no other way to improve capacity without laying new track, and doubling-up the Victorian route of WCML would clearly be ludicrous compared to making a more direct route for HS2.
Well, not sure I agree. Even with HS2 removing the fastest intercity services, you would still have conflicts at critical bottlenecks between the mixed-traffic trains running. E.g. Rugby - New St.
What the railways are severely leaving in the UK is joined up thinking and a set of real long term aims and objectives. As examples on the conventional network, voyagers don't cope particularly well on the sea wall at Dawlish and Voyagers had limited capacity, but 4 car HSTs were put in place by GWR. Joined up thinking could have made the HSTs longer but curtailed the voyager routes at Exeter creating better capacity on both parts of the route, even if some passengers need to change trains. In Manchester, TPE services are restricted in length by the need to fit Oxford Road station, whilst stopping at Oxford Road is desirable is it really essential for express services which would benefit from the extra capacity of longer trains? Why so many trains running on multiple when it's just wasted space of multiple cabs/cafés/ kitchens?
HS2 is even worse! It's scope has been changed so many times that it's become an absolute Frankenstein of a project. Euston is a poor choice for a terminus, Kings Cross/St Pancras with connection to more tube lines and to Thameslink would be much better (why spend billions on an Old Oak Common station to link to CrossRail if not doing the same to link to Thameslink which serves more places?) If Kings Cross/St Pancras isn't possible then what are the benefits of choosing Euston - a North facing station out of London when HS2 runs West out of London to then travel north, and Old Oak Common - a station seemingly designed only to provide access to Heathrow and a connection to CrossRail. If those are essential aims and you can't access Kings Cross/St Pancras then skip the middle man and send it to Paddington and build one new London HS2 station rather than 2!
Why does it cross over East-West Rail without a station? What exactly is the point of Birmingham Interchange - it's going to need a people mover to get to the existing station, the NEC or Airport and will that many people really need to get there from other parts of the country long distance?
Why Curzon Street in Birmingham as a terminus when railway conpanies made the mistake of building terminus stations over 100 years ago, it restricts possible journey options and makes changing between trains far more difficult for those unfamiliar with the area or with disabilities.
Why a terminus in Manchester (and possibly Leeds) rather than through stations to allow better connectivity northwards from those stations. The services from both Manchester and Leeds to Scotland are utterly insufficient at the minute and new sections of high soeed line North from those stations to existing lines (or just to allow future HSR expansion) would be really helpful.
Sheffield not planned to be connected to the main High Speed Line when it's in real need of investment and the East Midlands not getting a station in a useful city (preferably Nottingham) and not being able to have Cross Country trains use HS2 as planned because they'd be stuck when they get to Birmingham.
What we need in the short term is longer trains to make best use of the infrastructure we have. What we need in the long term is a real plan that's going to be stuck to. People like to complain at the cost of HS2 and the government wants to cut costs. Personally I'd much rather the government spend twice as much on it and get it right than spend less on something that's subpar.
Sadly the reasons behind a lot of these baffling decisions are purely based on the cost for upgrading existing stations to cope with the extra transfers and passengers. Building brand new stations out of town is much cheaper instead.
It’s one of the outcomes of “efficiencies and cost saving measures” which, as you say, completely kneecap the original concept. If HS2 ran through sensible existing stations with good transfers and went all the way to Glasgow (or at least Manchester) it’d be a lot more sensible.
Dawlish may be very pretty but from an operational point of view, it is a real pain. The seafront section is maybe 2 miles in a journey of 500+, which is a huge compromise. HSTs are an awesome train & I really appreciate them but I accept that things have moved on since the 1970s.
Have you ever walked between Euston & Kings Cross/St Pancras? It is not very far at all. The Northern & Victoria lines both provide a very services, but a travellator connecting the 2 is very feasible. The Euston HS2 station is being built partly on the site of the old Euston mail terminal (as well as platforms 17/18 of Euston itself) but St P has recently been redeveloped so there is little space there.
@@kaitlyn__L Do you really think plans for HS2 & Glasgow have been thrown away, or maybe moved to another shelf to become "HS3", in order to cut costs from HS2?
@@TheRip72 it’s the same difference - Glasgow and Edinburgh will have to fight to get considered again, and the counter-argument would be that we’ve already spent so much money on another high speed line so can’t we wait another 20 years.
There was always some element of that with being “stage 3” after “2a” and “2b”, and of course 2a&b have been thrown away now too so we’re only getting stage 1. So it really doesn’t matter whether it’s called HS2 stage 3, HS3 stage 2, or HS4. It’ll always be last to come and the first to be delayed.
Maybe it’d be better to try and build high speed rail between Edinburgh and Glasgow (not a huge time savings but would free up room on the Argyle Line etc) to later expand that to Manchester etc. Or two separate Manchester to Edinburgh and Manchester to Glasgow routes, but that would probably cost more than just Manchester to Glasgow and Glasgow to Edinburgh which would still cover all three routes.
@@kaitlyn__L I totally agree that the section to Glasgow/Edinburgh is important, but the northern sections have been dropped to cut costs which will be published & this is important: Remove them from "HS2 Phase 1" & it sounds like the project has become cheaper. This is a politics trick which fools the media ... & most thing published by the media are very foolish indeed. Or you could just call them biased, but isn't bias really foolishness?
I was on an Avanti refurbished Pendolino in the shop a few months ago, it was just me and the lady behind the counter.
I joked, are we even allowed to say the words anymore?
She said, what, Virgin Trains?
I said, yeah, did you work for them?
She just said “yeah… they treated us better.”
Made me realize how blind this government is to its people and how self centered it is.
Virgin Trains was a household name. They did more for the WCML than Avanti will ever do.
Virgin were, and continue to be, visionaries.
Even if Virgin were brought back (which is less likely than OLR) they would be heavily micromanaged by the direct award contracts.
It sounds extreme to say this, but it is indeed unbelievable that the DfT took one of the few instances of privatisation actually working, and working very well, and threw it away with the First Group award and incessant micromanaging. They are decisions made by people with absolutely no knowledge of how things work.
@@GWVillager not extreme at all, in fact my view is far more cynical. They have the knowledge of what works, but that’s not their priority. c.f. CrossCountry.
In fact, at the risk of bringing in too much party politics, I wonder if WorstGroup is a Tory donor. They seemed very reluctant to strip the TPE contract and hand it back to the OLR.
@@GWVillagerThe DFT Have Caused Confusion And Delay
I’m a rail worker working in the ticket inspection area and for anonymity’s sake I won’t say any more or what TOC, however I can say the part about Jeremy hunt is interesting. I’ve seen him through stations I’ve operated at numerous times and at all times, about 5-10 undercover police officers and another 5-10 plain clothed officers are on scene and make me aware that I shouldn’t check his ticket. Shameless waste of money.
Been watching you since 500 subscribers and I don't think I can possibly describe how far you've come. This felt like a professional piece belonging on the TV. If you keep up the quality like this, I can see your channel soaring to success very quickly. Keep it up man, you've clearly got some serious talent...
Only just found the channel myself but well presented & I felt presented very balanced views.
Glad you mentioned Scotland and Wales, and how we’ve managed to avoid the kind of strikes seen in England. In Scotland, with ScotRail and (as of last month) Caledonian Sleeper being publicly owned operators (both now owned by Scottish Rail Holdings, which is owned by Transport Scotland, an agency of the Scottish Government), I think long term we’ll see a better focus on service. We even see a lot of investment in the network in Scotland, “Scotland’s Railways”, which is a partnership between Network Rail, Scot Gov and others, is responsible for all of the infrastructure and capital projects. In fact, they even have a website that you can go to look at all of the current and future projects. The main focus for rail investment now is decarbonising the railways, the with aim of getting to all electric and battery operations by the 2030s.
The Scottish government are still ruled by the UK government
I’ve already seen massively improved levels of staffing in the stations! Which is great imo, really helps passengers get a speedy tactile result of increased service investment.
I’d love it if we could reopen some more lines, but Scotland has already reopened Beeching Axed lines over the last 15 years to great success so I won’t get too greedy. Especially as converting from diesel is clearly very important.
As a railwayman with 37 years experience I have to say this is a very good analysis of the current situation. My congratulations. The thing I would quibble with is the description of Sunday working. Conditions vary from TOC to TOC. Some TOCS operate as the narrator says. Others operate differently. For example, as a guard at Transport for Wales we have what are called committed Sundays. You are entitled to declare yourself unavailable to work such turns. Others who are not booked to work on the Sunday concerned can put their name down on a list if they want to work an extra shift. If I have declared my self unavailable but there are insufficient volunteers to cover my shift then I have to work. Rail staff are well aware that Sunday passenger levels are changing. Personally I would favour making Sunday part of the working week. It would put an end to forced overtime.
The TOCs cannot enforce overtime apart from during times of service disruption, If a member of staff doesnt't turn up for a Sunday they cannot cover they cannot discipline them for this as they are not paying them, plus the TOC are required to use every available means to cover the turn accordingly, but they don't. As you say enforced overtime.
cut the rail network out, build an efficient road freight service,what good is it when they strike large parts of any year
@@edwinturner1149they basically tried that in the 60s.
Also, road has a much lower capacity per square mile than rail - so you couldn’t just pave over rails and call it done.
@@edwinturner1149 Is your name Marples by any chance?
@@edwinturner1149 Simple question: The number of trucks of UK roads, is it too little, the right amount or too many?
Britain's rail network is an uncoordinated mess. Trying to buy a train ticket of 4000 different websites generally ends up with you going to the ticket office, having an actual conversation with a physical human being, and they finding the cheapest ticket anyway. What is the point of the internet purchase of tickets if they don't work? Also, the prices of train tickets are ridiculous, and then you get on a train and it's 3/4 empty, and it turns out that the few people on the train are subsidising the journey. Add to that the byzantine system of railcards and when you can and can't travel, that no-one fully understands, and it's one big neoliberal mess.
One point I agree with Corbyn on is to renationalise the network, make the trains systematised, make them affordable, have ONE website to buy tickets and eliminate all the uncertainties that makes rail travel so difficult.
The British railway network needs to be rebuild to the scale of 1960.
As long as we have a PM who prefers to use private jets to get round the country, don't expect any improvements in the railways.
and helicopters.
Haha! That explains why passenger rail is either a joke or non existent here in Canada!
We will soon have Hydroelectric powered pacers from London - Glasgow via the WCML if this continues
I'm an avid rail travel enthusiast, when I watch videos on UK ,trains ,many times the trains are virtually empty, having been to the UK ,I was amazed how expensive trains are ,any wonder ,no one is using them.
Half the price ,double the amount of users ,overall make more money.
I was about to say exactly the same thing. The service is atrocious, overpriced, bearly on time if running at all. Compared to others in the world it’s a Joke. Might as well get Megabus or National Express to run it, at least you’ll get where you need to go.
This is a great overview and its coming from an honest view of politics, not a boring neutral stance which is great to see. The frustration of having a mismashed network of companies definitely hits home, and the problems with HS2 echo in many other projects and dumb politicians across the world.
I should discuss the UK network more in the future but I'm glad that theres people like you that care enough to improve things to make videos like this 🤟
I almost spat out my metaphorical drink when I saw you'd commented, thank you very much. It is indeed a frustrating situation, and hopefully the many of us who do care will one day have an effect!
hi big fish, you should do a collab with gw
Maybe you two should collab? You both do similar style of videos! Maybe what the UK can learn from the US and vice versa? (I did send a previous comment but idk if it got through or not as CZcams was having a goofy ahh moment)
It just seems the crux of the issue with our railways is the government and shareholders have been trying to have the time of their life behind close doors, now it's all coming to ahead but the media narrative of "train drivers paid too much" has taken the spotlight so people are really not fully in tune with what the actual issues are.
The country hasn’t recovered from the benching cuts.
Railway network was contracting since WW1. WW1, grouping and nationalisation resulted in line and station closures to reduce line/station duplication especially when lines transferred between regions. Perhaps closures in those days did not get the publicity or no one used the services. It’s a pity there isn’t a map of network in 1914 which can be compared with the other two to show that Beeching wasn’t the start of the closure but the speeding up of an existing process under the direction of the government of the day.
The Modernization plan before that is the main culprit, wasting billions on useless diesels and yards, rather than modernizing the network. That resulted in the Beeching Axe.
Also, 2041 until Euston opens??, that is absolutely shameful
@@LordShadow593
Should have brought in Beeching, or somebody like him, in 1948. Get the closures done much sooner, and then had the Modernisation Plan. I’m sure that Beeching would have made a better job of it. The government rejected his second report, on the development of the trunk routes.
As an ex-railwayman, your video warmed my heart. More people need to know the truth as the story of the railways' lack of useful investment and long term plan pretty much the same for all public sectors.
One of the many stuck in the past left wing dinosaurs. The railways are far less important than they once were. They must adapt or go bust - it's as simple as that
@@KeithJones-yq6of As a railway historian, I'd be very interested to know your ideas on how the network can become more important and profitable while ensuring that they remain a viable alternative for people who, unlike you, can't afford the alternatives.
Quote - ......of the railways' lack of useful investment and long term plan pretty much the same for all public sectors
That's the British for you!!
@@Gideonsmythe Admitting to be an historian only goes to prove my point. Facilities at all stations (by means of TVM's), coupled with all the available help that will still be available onboard or at major stations means that vulnerable passengers should have no hesitation about using the railways.
@@KeithJones-yq6of Wrong! I live in Milton Keynes, the heart of the most congested section of the WCML. When I go out in the car what do I experience? Congestion on the M1 & M6. This is getting worse.
Railways need to work with roads. The railway can ease the pressure off busy roads such as the M1/M6.
This is the first video I’ve seen from this channel and I’m really looking forwards to seeing more, top stuff!
Excellent analysis, very well told. I agree that much of the work now may hinge on the GBR project, though I have a sneaking suspicion that some more changes may end up coming along - not least because there may be an attempt to retrofit the GBR branding and purpose onto Network Rail, while the underlying regional train operations are taken over by Local Transport Authorities(TfL, TfWM, TfN, MerseyRail etc) and the like, with GBR only owning the InterCity/HS-type operations alongside the Track, Ticketing, Stations and Property. Of course, that may require a new government that can resolve the strikes, first.
Excellent video! I’ve long given up on the trains and it seems like even the people operating the trains have given up on the trains.
Maybe that's what the oil companies want.
It still beats driving.
Great video. I'm now unto my 27th year working in the industry, and never before have I seen such low morale in the workforce - across every franchise/operator in England. It feels like a rudderless ship being piloted by blind drunk idiots who can't agree who is in charge; whilst we who actually make the trains run have to just get on with doing the best we can for our passengers.
@jamesinbolton- im also a career footplateman with 42 years in and have concluded that we, the railway workforce are a workforce of lions and were being led by clowns and donkeys
Hope you're in the RMT
The railways are not half as important as they once were. You lot are stuck in the past.
@@toyotaprius79 Me too, because they will not get anywhere if they are
The tories don't like railways they still want everyone to have a car . + the strikes in my opinion are political as the unions want to get Labour in so they can threaten more strikes & Labour will give into them for more money . Shame we can't do away with rail .
Our railways are a absolute joke no matter when it comes to having strikes and the RMT and ASLEF don’t want the strikes to continue but unfortunately train drivers and staff aren’t getting paid enough. And of course with more money being spent on keeping the railways moving including HS2 and the completion of the Elizabeth Line.
and of course lets all blame the unions and strikes for the problems, BUT NEVER have the YEARS of absolute poor bombastic, arrogant ,complacent ,incompetent , mis-management EVER been blamed for the terrible state our railways are now in !! NEVER has ANY manager ever been made accountable for the implementation of their poor decision-makng and stupid money-losing ideas ,that, ultimately have cost and lost our railway millions of £££,s
Absolutely. Totally agree 👍
Interesting!
Regarding the Beeching axe: what happened with all the land that was in possession of the rail companies after the lines were shut down? Looking at the map, the old trajectories still exist, so resurrecting should not be as expensive.
The land was sold off in the vast majority of cases. Much of the right of way is still there as you say, and could be bought and reinstated relatively cheaply, but the issues are where housing estates and (particularly) business parks have been built inconsiderately over lines. The cost of demolishing these would be considered prohibitive in most cases sadly, but this is all the more of a reason to reopen the few lines that haven't been built on to safeguard their routes.
The trackbed of closed railways should have been retained as a strategic reserve. I remember the Great Central where the M1 and other roads were just built across its path. I remember a single house plonked on the trackbed of the GW line at Shepton Mallet.
Hey, I'd love to see a follow up video about what you'd like to see done to improve the current situation in our railways. I assume a full completion of HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail, electrification etc but what lines do you think are the best to reopen? How to structure GBR and things we could borrow from more succesful railway nations like The Netherlands or Italy and any other ideas. I think it'd make a great video.
Cheers!
I will probably make a video like this at some point, yes.
@@GWVillager That last sentence would be interesting though! Especially since many of these companies are actually owning a franchise here (DB, Trenitalia)
Excellent video sir, thank you! Just subscribed.
What a well researched & balanced presentation. You have earned yourself another subscriber.
Vote in the general election - get the tories out. Keep them out.
@davidt-rex2052 -Clearly your stupidity is matched only by your ignorance !! so ,lets get rid of the tories and replace them with who??-the Labour party ??- yes great idea - they WILL have bankrupted the country ,taxed us all into oblivion and let EVEN MORE ayslum seekers into the country -SO such a great idea-but I really wouldnt expect thick, retarded, numnut idiots like yourself to understand that !!!! obviously history isnt quite your strong point, so might i suggest that ,instead of posting stupid, juvenile comments ,you should try reading your history books , and you will find that the "illustrious " Barbara Castle ( "the railwaymans friend !!") and the Labour party had quite a number of chances to reverse all the Beeching cuts -and how far did they get with that ?? and also one certain grinning buffoon Labour party leader promised that if he was elected into power he would re-nationalise the railway !!,again ,just remind me of how successful that idea was ?? -your carers, padded cell and straight-jacket await you !!
Your right let's get Labour to put us into a proper rescession with an endless public spending spree. Sure we can pick up the tab another time.
Excellent video. And may I say, you have unexpectedly good taste in music. haha
You deserve more subscribers.
Excellent presentation, thank you.
really excellent video, very interesting and informative and exceedingly well made!
Well, this clears up a lot, thanks yoy for making this
Well that's what you get when you vote for the Tory Party.
You did well to be cool and delivered a balanced piece whilst allowing for further discussion. 🇬🇧😏
Great documentary. Really well put together.
16:01 I also would like to point out that open access operators don't come under the same jurisdiction as franchisees, so they too have resolved their disputes.
What a fab video, a lot covered in the given time
An excellent analysis of the present situation and I understand the brevity needed.
You correctly identified the two major problem's in the lack of strategic oversight that a long-term plan would engender and (pardon my latin) the fucking Treasury.
I personally believe that the Treasury is a significant barrier to everything a government of any political hue does.
It's so obsessed with the short-term is has no concept of to invest for the future.
So to sum up: Failure to adapt to the changing enviroment, no future plans and future proofing, privitisation as a whole was pathetically done, non-cooperation with the unions, bad infrastructure and DfT being dumb for the 913th time. I also still disagree with HS2 in it's current plans. Personally connecting Wales seems alot better from an economical standpoint, but the second they said that it won't connect to Europe via HS1 I lost all interest since the potential dropped like a stone doing that.
To add, even though capacity on the WCML to Birmingham is strained, this could be partially addressed if the section from Rugby to Wolverhampton was properly quaduple track. It won't solve the problem completley but it will make running stopping services a lot more easier and I'm fairly certain that it wouldn't take 15 to 20 year to build it. Still, good video buddy :)
I completely agree that not having a connection to HS1 was a huge missed potential, it's infuriating that over 30 years after the promise of regional Eurostars we were so close to having a vastly better situation being delivered relatively easily but it was thrown away. I was more arguing for the general need for High Speed relief from the WCML, rather than HS2 in its current state, which, yeah, is rather underwhelming.
Collab?
@@oldtechnobodycaresabout Maaaaaaaaaybe.
Not only that, when they re-developed Birmingham New Street into 'grand central' they really should of added an extra pair of tunnel bores at either end of the station as frequently trains need to spend 5 / 10 mins queueing up to GET IN to the station itself and its a MASSIVE source of congestion, but it was deemed too expensive. Even if they had developed Curzon Street to simply take trains Terminating at Birmingham it would of been a fairly big help, but how hs2 has the site.
the Eastern leg of HS2 could likely be achieved much cheaper by improvements ( mainly quad track ) on the existing albeit busy route through Tamworth - Burton - Derby - Sheffield as all too often the fast passenger services on end up crawling along for a few miles before zipping past a freight train which has found and stopped in a passing loop, meaning he now needs to accelerate to line speed again and will likely get in the way of the next service causing a delay spiral
A good video and I think you did a good job of trying to be unbiased. I've seen lots of videos online heralding the end of privatization and how this is a good thing but as ever it's a bit more nuanced than that. I think the history on why it 'failed' is still being written and might I say, I think you glossed over it a bit quickly. The Portsmouth-Cardiff line is my go to example of this nuance, where an operator wants to refurbish their train to make them more suitable but they just can't! I personally can't forgive DfT for ending Virgin's franchise and I strongly suspect there was more to that bonkers decision than we know.
I did mention the Portsmouth to Cardiff debacle! I would agree there that there is nuance to the situation, Virgin Trains is a prime example of this as you say, I do think that their heyday saw possibly the world's finest Intercity service, given the fact they ran on conventional lines.
However, as for the broad concept of privatisation (franchising at least), I think it can be concluded that it was a failure, at least if we are to look at it as a long term system. Despite its many successes, fares have grown massively, integration has declined and comfort and service have worsened, even though subsidy has increased hugely.
@@GWVillager Sorry, I realize you mentioned Portsmouth-Cardiff; I was agreeing with your choice of example but not doing so very clearly it appears.
very interesting video! glad this was recommended to me
Ken Loach and The Navigators said hi!
I'm so happy that I successfully predicted you'll say, "aaahhhh.. the HS2" after the sub headings part 😂 16:17
Well done: fair, balanced, considerate and good locution delivery.
I never really comment on videos. Great job, great research and great storytelling.
As an ex driver and now commuter, I understand about striking over working conditions, however for the passengers, the ones ultimately who pay for the service, it’s overpriced for a service that’s mediocre at best. Even Arriva buses and National Express worked out how to get more passengers back on their buses/coaches after the pandemic and it seems to be working. If you’re going to pay for a service, you should get what you pay for, not less.
Train le good, government le bad
So we in part have to blame a politician stakeholder in an inferior rivalling business for the downfall of a superior mode of transport? what a novel occurrence!
fantastic video, just subbed
Thank you!
Tbh it sounds like most of the current problems concerning rail services stem from the government, not the private companies, messing up.
Not the video I was expecting (much much better) so well done for that, If you want to go down the rabbit hole a lot more and see the other side of privatisation try looking at the freight operators or FOC`s (it`s not all tea and overtime)........
Thank you, freight is something I’ve been wanting to read up on for a while, it’s a sector I know relatively little about.
Marple was a nasty piece of work and great friend of Beeching. As we now know this was a disaster
Well said and well presented.
A very very awesome video essays!
Well im staying in TFW territory thanks as it seems that they and ScotRail are in the best positions right now
In the 1990s, it wasn't surprising to hear of the government privatising the railways, but what was surprising was the method used to determine the way, that is franchising. I firmly believe that franchising has more issues than the benefits.
IMO had British Rail been privatised but kept intact as one company (much like British Gas and Royal Mail) then things would definitely be a lot different, probably for the better. More standardised rolling stock, better procurement of resources, more even branding and messaging, and more flexibility in operations - all while the private sector could maintain an interest in investing in rail.
That may have been a better idea, though I do think franchising had its benefits for long distance routes.
IMO the owner of the trains and the train operator being different entity is one of the problem
Another problem is also government intervention in selecting the routes
Maybe they should do gradual transfer of the rights of the stations, then the trains, then the rails
🤔🤔🤔
I would agree that it would be much better if the BR regions were privatised instead of split up into TOCs with trains owned by ROSCOs and the infrastructure owned by a single organisation (a monopoly that became a government monopoly aka "Network Rail")...
The way you described how BR should have been privatised is similar to the partial privatisation of the Hong Kong MTR Corporation (the HK Government owns 20% of MTRC since privatisation) which is in contrast to the Japanese railway privations of the 1990s where the JNR was split into seperate "JR Company"-ies (e.g. East Japan Railway Company) and then most new JR companies were privatised 100% (some mostly-unprofitable sectors of the JNR were not privatised) this is what I would have preferred but all sectors privatised and then the closure of the MOT/DfT with no replacement organisation)
Japan had already private railway companies (like Odakyu, Tobu, Meitetsu or Kintetsu), but they are mostly concentrated around big cities (mainly around Tokyo and Osaka)
JR Hokkaido & JR Shikoku are actually owned by the japanese government as they could not turn a profit at all
A brilliant overview and, I have to say, pretty unbiased assessment. Perhaps it should be required watching for all politicians?
I’m old enough to remember BR. I thought it was pretty good until Thatcher deliberately ran it down as an excuse to privatise it.
The Sunday working thing is a way of allowing "strikes" to be held without them actually being strikes - no balloting is required for withdrawing services provided on a "voluntary" basis (despite being paid for it)
privatizing It was a mistake...
privatising*
but yes i agree, fuck the government, incompetent cunts
Railway isn’t electrified enough
A major thing overlooked about the passenger railways of UK including new projects like HS2 is that it continues to be labour intensive and uncompedative in nature . You gotta start thinking outside the box .
That's what you get with huge vanity projects. Oh well, it's in full swing now. It might possibly take some business traffic away from WCML. But it's not the culture of this government to allow cheaper travel (via competition) for passengers. Really, they've used fares as a way of reducing overcrowding, yet the passenger numbers still increase! So when HS2 is open, I suspect more of the same, with WCML helping to pay back the spiralling debt of HS2.
They should've thought outside the box, yes. I still think it should've been some build & forget infrastructure involving maglev, without all the ballast & the catenary that we have to endlessly fiddle with now.
More to the point, as far as Railways are concerned, they are capital intensive. People who see these things in the short term fail to grasp this. It's the difference between owning your house or renting: "30 years to pay off a mortgage? Sod that, I'll just pay rent for the 50 years I'll be living in this house."
An excellent assessment. Good work.
Ever since the first public railway was proposed government has interfered, setting out rates for passengers and goods, dictating what happens to surplus land purchased and much else.
After WW1, as long distance road transport was becoming viable, the government dictated that the railways companies freight rates had to be publicly available, how much they could charge and that they were not allowed to refuse a consignment. Naturally road transport operators undercut for high value loads and refused low value items. Example, a manufacture has a new machine to deliver to a customer (high value) which they send by lorry. The lorry operator doesn't bother with the empty crate which they railway has to carry at a low rate.
The UK received a great deal of Marshall Aid after WW2 intended to rebuild the economy. Instead of rebuilding the railways after the heavy use and low maintenance of the war years the money was handed over to the shareholders in order to nationalise them.
There were two Beeching Reports. The first detailed lines and services to be closed (many of which were accounted to portray a worse than actual situation, eg making wagon unavailable for freight) while the second proposed reforms to modernise the system only some of which were acted upon.
The supposed introduction of competition that privatisation was intended to bring about overlooked one vital aspect, the railways already had competition in the form of the road system and its vehicles.
In 1983 the drivers were offered a pay enhancement for working trains driver only. They took the rise and ALL drivers have had this pay enhancement since the Bed - Pan line finished the electrification upgrade. Now they don't want DOO even though they have been paid for it since 1983.
A very insightful and well-made video. When I heard about the abolition of franchising I hoped it was the start of a move away from the attitude of 'railways as a profitable business first and foremost' that you rightly mention has been around in some form since the 60s, but with GBR basically dead in the water now (afaik the government wants to re-franchise TPE as soon as possible), important rail projects being whittled down to a shell (HS2, no commitment to EWR electrification, Northern Powerhouse Rail etc) and jobs/accessibility being sacrificed in the name of penny-pinching, I don't feel very hopeful for the future of UK rail unless things seriously change. I 100% respect your staying unbiased in the video but personally I absolutely do lay a lot of the blame on the Tories - their vilifying of the unions and striking workers serves as a distraction from the underlying issues.
Oh yes, I do personally agree. Whilst he isn't nearly as dramatic as his predecessors, I think that Rishi Sunak has proved uniquely inadequate at dealing with transport issues, union vilification, as you say, and viewing matters through an exclusively financial lens will cause a huge deal of long term damage to the rail network.
Just one nit-pick! The Government wants to put operations of TPE back into the private sector in the form of a National Rail Contract, not re-franchise it. There's not even any indication of whether it would go through a competitive bidding process, which completely defeats the point if you ask me.
@@GWVillager thanks for the clarification, I'd heard about the re-privatising intention and assumed it meant the usual bidding process.
If foreign states and companies continue to be involved in British railways.......please can they be Swiss and Japanese!
The Dutch railways, who have long been considered third railway nation of the world, have long had a subsidiary in the UK. Albellio often gave mediocre service and is not here anymore for an obvious reason.
I heard that the Department of Transport chose the Hitachi class 800 series trains including the seats..Virgin chose the Pendolino. Which was the better decision. ?
This is brilliant.
The biggest problem with the UK's railways currently is the sheer complexity of the system. Like most areas of government, there are far too many pies with far too many fingers in them. However, the rot really started with Beeching and Marples who had no regard for the social and cultural value and the public service aspect and only cared about it from a financial point of view. This has been the government's mentality ever since.
To be fair, Marples and Beeching weren't the first to focus solely on the direct financial element...the whole premise of the Modernisation Plan was also to restore the railways to profitability (they had been making a net profit until about 1953 iirc). What didn't happen then - and has still never happened, at least in England - was a moment where the powers that be acknowledged "okay, the railways are losing money, but they're a public service so let's fund them as one".
Crazy how railways are expected to turn a profit, but literally any other mode of transportation doesn't. There's nothing as expensive and environmentally and socially destructive as private automobiles, yet they are subsidized at every single point with vast sums.
@@NeonNion What subsidies are these? The British motorist has been absolutely rinsed by the taxman for years. Something like 60-70% of the price of fuel is taxation. Also road tax, VAT on purchase and subsequent servicing and repairs and there is even taxation on the premium for the insurance we are legally required to have. Not to mention an increasing trend of more taxation (ULEZ, congestion charge etc) for driving in urban areas.
@@Twmpa First and foremost, I should probably mention that I’m from Finland. However, the situation isn’t that different between these counties. What do I mean by “subsidies”? Well, I’m not talking about direct subsidies such as tax reductions. I mean that by continuing the current status quo, in which private automobiles make up most of the share of travel, we are wasting huge sums of money and societal resources to supporting that. Cars are incredibly expensive mode of transportation and create immense environmental and social problems. For example, each car trip in Helsinki region costs twice as much to city municipalities, compared to each public transportation trip. That just shows the direct financial burdens of car travel to municipalities, individual costs come on top of that. According to Nimble Fins, the average annual running costs of a car in the UK is 3,556£. It can easily be much more than that.
Now, I’d like to talk about the effects cars have had on land usage. Cars offer flexibility, which has had the adverse effects of more spread-out development in cities, everything’s further apart from each other. This in turn, increases the costs of maintenance. When houses and businesses are further apart from one another, more infrastructure is needed to cover them. More road surfaces, more sewage pipes, more water pipes, more streetlighting, more electrical cables, costlier transit coverage, costlier service coverage… Most extreme cases can be found in the USA. For example, Detroit, a thriving city before cars took over, went bankrupt due to untenable maintenance liabilities. Or take Tampa, Florida, a city of 150,000 household, which needs to spend 3,2 billion dollars to fix its water pipelines. That distributed over the next 20 years as is planned, comes to an average of 160 million per year. How much Tampa currently spends on fixing its aging infrastructure: 20 million. Just to fix its waterpipes requires a staggering 8-fold increase in infrastructure spending - an increase of 933$ per household over the present level. And this wouldn’t include any of the other things that taxes pay for.
It’s getting late and this has already turned into an essay, which wasn’t my plan. Anyway, the main answer is at the start of the text. Hope that answers your question.
I need a ticket office when I travel in Europe as I cannot know when I will be able to clear the airport and when the 'bus to the city centre will arrive. I then go to the ticket office for the next available train. How would I manage in such a case, arriving in England, trying to find and use a machine with only English signage? (I only use trains in Europe as anyway, I cannot afford them here.)
The problem is not the hardware or passenger numbers, but politicians fiddling with no idea or experience
Has anybody else who watches the Michael Portillo programs noticed how many times he appears to be practically the only person in the carriage? Could it be the outrageous fare system. (System?)
Hopefully it's sarcasm but if you were serious it's nothing to do with the fare system at all.
Film/TV companies as well as any normal business will pay TOCs to keep carriages empty/private.
I have seen auction companies do it for their staff, Sheffield to London, 1 whole 1st class carriage just for a handful of staff.
Likewise I seen standard carriages fully privately booked for school trips to London from Sheffield.
Brilliant. Thanks very much. I didn't disagree with your analysis.
in fairness to cross country, since covid they have actually couples their voyagers in pairs making it a lot less crowded, however they have slowly started running their voyagers independently again
There is nothing about that to congratulate them on. During Covid, they ran a heavily reduced timetable, meaning they have had enough spare Voyagers to run together. As the timetable has stepped up again, they’ve gone back to running alone.
@@GWVillager are voyagers compatible with meridians, if so they would be a shout for cross country, anything but more IETs
@@sprinterofficial8457 I believe they are, at least with a few modifications.
Please correct the Sunday working section. I am a Train Manager (guard) and Sundays are a normal working day for my company with no enhancements to pay etc for working them. It is rostered and I work them like every other day.
Apologies, I will add a clarification. Sunday working varies by TOC.
Freight is a complex one because really you do still need traditional freight wagons but you also need container wagons.
But to rebuild freight and passenger services we need to rebuild the rail network to the scale of 1960 and rebuild Industrial,mining, agriculture,animal husbandr,aquaculture and utilities sectors it would boost the economy massively but it would also massively increase rail freight but on top of they it would also boost passenger demand for the railway.
One note regarding fragmentation, in Japan the train operators for local lines are equally fragmented according to the NHK rail series. The results of the train operators are mixed, some are profitable, others depend on subsidies. But in the end it comes down to how good and efficient the operator is. My point is that fragmentation may not necessarily be a bad thing. It has pros and cons but it can work in an economically sustainable fashion if the train operator is able and willing.
It most certainly is shameful!! The government should really be forced into mass resignation and made to compensate the railway customers.
A really interesting video. A lot of anger pointed towards the DfT, which I understand, but much of the fiscal cuts to rail services are laid almost squarely at the Treasury. Many in DfT trying to make the best of a bad situation but are in an impossible position. If ticket offices don't close, what else gets cut? Micromanagement is a result of political pressure from No 11.
Oh indeed. But I do nonetheless think that the DfT are making some questionable decisions with what they have.
When people complain about wanting to nationalise the railways - we effectively have this already. The franchises whether publicly or privately owned are paid a management fee which covers their costs plus a small % for profit. DfT takes the revenue. Same process for London Overground and Elizabeth Line I believe. It’s easier to control costs and ticket offices are an easy target as DfT would say they sell few tickets and alternatives are available.
Thank you, that was a very informative video, highlighting the current problems within the railways.
There were some things that I hadn't realised such as GWR being unable to upgrade their trains.
With privatisation, I personally thought it was going okay. I was just wondering if it still could have worked. Thinking of the big 4 companies - LMS, LNER, GWR and SR - how were they doing before WW2? From what I have gathered, it was mainly due to lack of money within the companies (and the country) during and after the war that they were nationalised.
Before the war I feel like they were able to make vast progression in upgrading the railway/rolling stock. A couple of examples such as the competitive non stop runs to London - Scotland, electrification - especially for SR; increased commuter services. I am sure they had their faults but could privatisation currently have worked better in the long run?
I feel a lot of the modern private companies' money ended up going back to the government anyway having to pay off subsidies, contract fees, track maintenence (via Network Rail being publically owned) as well as other fees i am sure.
Anyway once again, thank you for your very intersting video!
Thank you for the kind words! The nationalisation of BR in 1948 was more due to the political climate of Clement Attlee’s time rather than financial shortcomings, though that was a factor certainly.
There is an argument to be made that the Big Four should have stayed around, as they did indeed oversee many improvements, but it is worth bearing in mind how much harder large, nationwide projects would have been. At least with BR, policies could be rolled out and implemented everywhere with relative ease, something that really benefited the railway in later years with the likes of the HST and Red Star. It does seem to, sadly, be the failure of the Modernisation Plan that threw a spanner in the works - if it had been a success the railway probably wouldn’t have needed the external investment that makes privatisation stand out.
Brilliance
I agree that we need additional capacity for the WCML, but does it need to be at higher than current speeds and in so many expensive tunnels? If not, then perhaps we could afford the link to Leeds.
Indeed, HS2 is probably overbuilt, it could be a bit slower and with steeper gradients etc. However, what’s done is done, and when it opens the gentle inclines will prove useful.
@@GWVillager Yorkshire has just seceded from the Union.
Regarding the tunnels, not a lot of ancient woodland left in the UK, this country is short of an ecological disaster, and sadly not enough is being saved, the works are destroying valuable and irreplaceable habitats. But what I always find amazing is that the route saves golf courses and the project also pays for new scouts headquarters for nearby villages...
I don't know if you'd save significantly even if aiming for the current speeds. What I do think is that if you're building new long distance infrastructure then why not make it better and more competitive, in line with the best practices of what we can see out there. Every flight between London and Edinburgh/Glasgow is a policy failure. High Speed is the way to go as so many countries around the world are demonstrating.
Avanti West Coast is a disastrous train service that is always late, busy and runs very slow through about 10 more stations that required
Well done on making this video. I've always said that rail investment is crucial to a growing economy. It allows regions to extract the most potential possible. it allows people greater opportunities in life by being able to travel and take jobs where they otherwise wouldn't be able.
Railways are not as important as they once were. Time has moved on but you railway dinosaurs haven't. You really don't have a clue
These days due to a red union you need to be able to drive, otherwise forget it!?!
The oldest railway in England never bothered to electrify. It only got part of its tract electrified thanks to Crossrail
I now cycle to most places, if that does not work I drive. Not right I know but its cheaper, faster, more reliable and the best bit (which applies to my bikes) a seat with room to think.
Something that is sadly becoming a thing of the past now the spreadsheet crunchers in Whitehall are pulling the strings.
In short, this is just the latest chapter in the sordid story of British railroading since the end of World War II. Look at all the missteps along the way:
1. The issues in the nationalization of British railways with British Rail, especially with building too many different rolling stock after nationalization.
2. The effects of the Beeching cuts in 1963 and 1965.
3. The effects of the split-up of British Rail into multiple constiuent companies in the 1990's.
4. The current issues of consideration of what amounts to a re-nationalization of the railroads _again_ .
Hi, I was wondering if you have ever been on the Caledonian Sleeper
I have, yes.
Why not replace the branch lines with BRT or driverless light metro
Sundays....they are not manned by volunteers. As a driver I am required and rostered to work 17 Sundays a year. Any I want off it is up to me to get it covered by another driver or work it myself. The unions have wanted Sundays part of the working week for over 20 years. It is the TOCs who don't as any pay then becomes pensionable and Sunday part of the working week would require more drivers to be hired.
As I said in the pinned comment, there are a number of TOCs that do roster on Sundays, though either way there are some that do not. I can't say I know huge amount about the specifics, but it's something I've heard from RMT members.
When you refer to the UK rail network, can you just make reference to passenger services when you make these points? Freight is part of the network, but it’s doing just fine, if not better than ever, all without any strikes or turmoil.
For the sake of my own breath, I had to keep it short hand! Though I would be inclined to disagree, whilst freight numbers are on the up, the money made is going to separate entities when it could be used to subsidise loss making passenger services.
@@GWVillager that works in nationalised networks, but not in the system we've had since 1994. The trouble with freight is, it never made any money after the war, until it was broken up into different sectors and then private companies. There was no competition under the sole BR overwatch, so most industries walked away from rail-freight and turned to cheaper, more accessible alternatives.
If, as a nation, we're going to move forward into a world that's greener and more sustainable, we need to allow rail delivered freight to remain privately owned and therefore competitive. If we need to change anything, it's allowing freight to become more accessible.
Forcing the private companies to support the passenger industry is like slapping the ball and chain onto all of the freight operators. There might be a separate case for DB doing this, as they have interests in both rail sectors, but to force financial support to the other successful freight operators a purely destructive move, especially after it's taken so many decades to get it right. After all, they already pay Network Rail for rail access!
Passenger numbers will fall further, especially with the loss of the One Day Travelcard.
I don’t think this will necessarily lead to a significant fall, but it is definitely a bad decision that will worsen the travelling experience for many.
They're scrapping Day Travelcards??? What an absolute joke.
And a Great Depression headed your way.
The same as every public utility once it was sold to the public. The buyers took the profits and their attitude was " Fuck you Jack, I'm alright", No re-investment.
HS2 great idea but badly design!!!
Great British Railways just sounds like Amtrak in America and I do not recommend.