What to do with the Railways

Once again, a long walk to uni for a lecture led me to thinking about ways to make the country better – seriously my brain is weird place. This time I found myself thinking about trains, trains and the railways.

There seems to be a split between those who want to nationalise the railways and those who wish to keep them privatised. There seem to be equally good arguments for both. If we nationalise the railways it might become a bit quicker, there might be fewer delays and tickets might not cost so much. On the other hand there would be no incentive to improve the system if it started failing. However if we keep it privatised, that incentive exists. Something goes wrong and we – that is the Government – can simply say, “Improve it or I’ll get someone else to run it.” But if we keep it privatised tickets will still cost an arm and a leg.

So I hear you ask, what’s the solution? Simple. We partly privatise, partly nationalise the rail network. Like this.

Stage One

Split the country up into sections. For the sake of this discussion we’ll go with sections that helpfully already exist. East of England, Yorkshire and the Humber, North West, North East, East Midlands, West Midlands, South West, South East and Greater London.

Stage Two

Set up a Government body – we’ll call it the National Rail Board or something – whose job it is to oversee the day to day running of the business. This organisation would set ticket prices, approve the construction of new train lines, write up employment rules, health and safety legislation and deal with all legal problems that might arise such as liaising with unions.

Stage Three

Devolve the managerial operations – such as employment tribunals, organising construction and maintenance and so on – out to local authorities in the regions mentioned above.

This is the nationalisation aspect that I mentioned. The overall running of the railways would be done by the government. Now on to the privatisation aspect.

Stage Four.

The Rail Board would at this point get together with representatives from the Regional Authorities and put the day to day operations out to tender to private companies. These companies would have the responsibility to maintain the tracks and railway stations, provide the trains and hire the drivers. They would be in charge of the actual running of the railway.

This system would allow for both the competition necessary to keep the railways running – as the regional authorities would be able to replace the companies if they felt they were not running things efficiently – while at the same time stopping them from becoming mere profit making machines, as the companies would be employed by the government and paid via government money.

So. What do you think guys?