Quote Originally Posted by ninianclark View Post
Are you not allowed to make comments about things in places where you dont live then ? - bizarre

Ok lets keep it to where you live then - so what you are saying is that the same people that work for Southern Rail will work for a new publicly owner company (I get that bit) my point being when looking at the Northen Ireland public sector trains - they seem to have a fair bit of industrial action going on - to say the least.

Now - going on to your other point about the money - every franchise is different and the contracts have a "cap and collar" clause which means in the contract they state how much revenue they expect to come in (agreed by both sides) - if there is too much revenue - they pay the Govt , if there is a short fall - the govt pays the franchise. Some franchises make a surplus - some dont.

As you know Im sure - the franchises dont own the rolling stock and dont look after the track.

Why not have a read of the full fact article https://fullfact.org/news/do-train-o...ssive-profits/ where it explains it all for you.

ps - going back to WAG Railways - the guards and drivers etc who have to work for someone. I think goes back to a mindset - if you used to work for British Rail - you knew you had the Govt over a barrel - there was no competition, and there was no incentive to provide a decent service - as you could not be got rid of.

my original point still stands - it needs to be run something akin to the Japanese model - which runs a mix of both private and public.
I think it stands to reason that I wouldn't specifically comment on a train system I don't use.

I can accept privatisation as a good alternative if there is the potential for competition. In general, customers can't 'shop elsewhere' so there is no incentive for failing franchises to improve, they end up leaning on the government more and more but still somehow making a profit. I live in one of the few small towns to have two stations with two different operators as they are different lines. I actually have choice, the downside of this is you get to see how disjointed the system has become over the last 20 years. Oyster is available at one and not the other because it hasn't been rolled out by one provider.

I am not specifically advocating a return to British Rail and everything being run centrally. I just think decisions about vital public services shouldn't be made with shareholders in mind.

How does the publicly run rail service in Northern Ireland compare to franchises in England and Wales in terms of delays and customer satisfaction?