Nationalisation vs Privatisation

Alex had experienced British Railways from 1966 to 1997 but was also able to bring us up to date, dispelling a number of myths, including incorrect stories of new TOC owners making large profits.

He set out arguments of being publically and privately owned and pointed out that we currently have a hybrid of the two, with the Department for Transport involved in most of the day to day running, meaning that we don’t have a truly privatised railway. Alex stressed his belief that having good quality management with clear goals and funding was far more important than ownership arguments.

Alex argued that the railways reached a peak of efficiency just before privatisation with BR’s ‘Organisation for Quality’. John Major’s government had little knowledge of railways, and the model adopted led to a fragmentation of track and trains – the root of much of today’s poor performance.

Government funding, now incorporated into contracts with franchisees, has increased investment under privatisation leading to substantial improvements in infrastructure, and enormous amounts of private capital, have brought in 8 000 new coaches. Neither of these sources of funding had been available to British Rail.

This issue is a political one as well as a practical matter with popular opinion, powered by perceptions of a poorly operating railway, caused largely by the pressures brought on by a doubling of passengers and trains since 1997, swinging towards public ownership, whilst many of the operating companies are struggling to make money. Substantial changes to the organisations are imminent and Alex forecast that the Williams Review would be unveiled very shortly. We were likely to see the railways reverting back to a BRB-style chairman and board taking over from the DfT for day to day operation of Network Rail and the train operating companies. Concessions rather than franchises would be granted.

Alex held his audience in rapt attention presenting a complicated issue in a very erudite way, regaling us with a mixture of plain speaking and data analysis. This could have been a rather dry topic to some and controversial to others, but he contrived a lively style and a balanced approach to avoid these pitfalls.

It is difficult to adequately summarise such a large topic and for a fuller picture, you are referred to Alex Green.