Should the national railway be privatised?

It should be privatised but the operating companies need to be held to account on prices and service

Allow a French style system where the Government holder 51% share majority, and the private sector 49%

If you want people out of cars the rail has to be an affordable effective option for travel, so the government must take view on what that means. It cannot abdicate responsibility to the private sector who are driven to pay dividends to shareholders

The trains are utterly ridiculous costs. You want us to use less cars and more public travel, and yet the costs are outrageous. In other countries I can go to the other end if the country for less

No, eliminate any privatisation and allow local workers to opperate the transport and make the stations publicly owned

Partial Nationalization to ensure ethical prices for those commuting and to make more effective train schedules

No,. But stricter regulation required to stop operators stripping cash out annd not re-investment and Inflated price setting.

Yes, but franchises should be regulated more strictly (I.e. Reliability/Punctuality/Cleanliness) These companies should have more autonomy for non-regulated things (not be constrained to specific trains/train sizes and designated times)

They should be a corporation owned by the government. This could mean the government don’t have to fund through taxes and they can fund through the people paying to use the trains.

lower the cost of train rides compared to europe

Don't use the train

have the trains and tracks owned by either the government or private companies not both

Yes but increase regulation and provide subsidies

Yes but not completely. We should allow for it to be nationalised to a certain extent but allow for privatisation to drive improvements.

Only if it was affordable to people and more beneficial. It's an essential service so it shouldn't be treated like a profiting business.

I think privatisation should be allowed if it can improve the quality of service but the UK government should be allowed to implement fair price caps that can be accessible everybody in the country.

The operating companies need to be held to account on prices and service and penalised if they don't meet standards

Companies operating rail franchises should be held accountable for failures to deliver services. Travel fares should be capped and profit maximisation should be obtained by the franchises becoming more efficient and eliminating waste. Failure to deliver set targets agreed with government when setting up the franchise should result in big fines.

Absolutely NOT! National services HAVE to be maintained by the Govt and not private companies to make a profit.

More government control would be better, however I believe the issue is the cost and the foreign investors using our railway system to subsidise other countries public transportation systems rather than putting the money back into the national railway or into commuters

The trains should be run on a cooperative and profit should be funnelled into staff with personal invested interest in the service.Maintenance and money should be dependent on each bough and need of local demographic

It’s already private being paid for with public funds; full privatise it and force heavy fines for noncompliance

No ! But the trains need to become more affordable! It’s way too expensive and we should be encouraging people to travel by train as it’s more environmentally friendly too

No, but investment in the railway needs to be looked into and overall fares decreased (as well as closing any loopholes that allow profits to subsidise rail fairs in other countries)

The question is not to privatise or be public. It is as most organisations a hybrid anyhow. The question is to put limits and criteria around senior exec pay and bonuses, dividend payouts

Both tracks and trains should be privatised, however, prices on tickets should be tightly controlled by a governing body.

Having or keeping some degree of privatisation may be appropriate, so long as the contacts and enforcement are rigorous and give benefit to the populace.

Whatever makes rail travel cheapest. It is a joke how much it costs from Preston to London compared to similar distances across europe

Privatised but if work needs to be done to improve it they can only take a small amount of the profit for shareholders 5/10% max

Yes, but the operation of rail lines should be more competitively tendered and contracts shorter term to encourage better management and funding

Privatisation of railway is essential to reduce all costs to the public purse but the government should impose stricter controls to remove the possibility of strikes

Yes, but ticket fares should be adjusted to the needs of the local people to allow fair use and reduce congestion/emissions from road users. Make trains cheaper to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles.

It should definitely only owned by UK companies and managed at a national level. Sovereign security

If we are going to have a national transportation plan then I'd support a nationalised approach for the whole network

Some level of privatisation can be accepted, provided that private companies invest in the development of the railway and service and that there are set conditions with the public entities. Public transport mist be preserved, especially in areas that are not commercially viable for private companies

It’s more important that they are run efficiently, safely and provide a high level of service than who owns them

It should be nationalised but be run by people who know what their roles include. People who have worked in the roles they would be in charge of

Privatise if increases the quality The government do not efficiently operate the trains but retains local control so strict criteria would be required to privatise fairly and not increase cost for consumer

Have railways owned by a single company in a constituency, that must co-operate with the local governments.

Whichever option reduces the cost of travelling sustainably, improves the efficiency and timely-ness of services and prevents disruption

Create a partnership to ensure the best people run and operate the service with stiff penalties for failire

Yes but govornment to set terms of service for private companies to tender to operate with fines which get invested in infrastructure managd by govornment to tender but not allowed same companies to operate and do infrastructure

I'd prefer publicly owned rail networks and stations, with both private and public train operators competing across the country

Definitely, corporations have tried and failed to make the rail network work but buy taking huge profits to the detriment of the users. It should never be less expensive to use your own car versus public transport.

Private is fine but it should be owned by British firms as it stands we're mostly owned by the German railway and where do you think our moneys going it's ridiculous

There’s no need for the government to run the trains. The problem has been that they implemented privatisation badly.

every time they do it nothing really changes so probably not there's so many jokes about this problem so probably leave it to the government to look after it

but unless you can find some individuals that will treat the railway light and proper business and not an easy way to get money off of your customers then yes

The tracks are already nationalised (Network Rail). Many of the train companies are also already nationalised. But yes, the remaining train companies should be nationalised.

On a case by case basis. But neither privatisation or nationalisation are necessarily best for public services

No, but allow some privatisation with the goal of reducing costs for the government and keeping them to a minimum for customers

Yes, but it needs to have punishable contracts that mean if passengers suffer, they are compensated without having to appeal, where appropriate. Only allow them to make a certain amount of profit and the remaing profit invested back into the infrastructure. Some money can be put aside to help deal with compensation but if not used anually, is split between profit and infrastructure

Contracted systems haven’t worked. I believe in privatisation but regulation needs to be stricter on service industry’s to prevent corporate greed

The government should own and operate its own train company that provides a skeleton service to the country

No, but the nationalised railways should be able to generate revenue from other sources. E.g. property development nearby stations and selling rights to run cabling along rail routes

Depends who will do the better job at maintaining them and keep cost to an affordable price for everyone.

It doesn't matter, just make sure there are enough workers and that trains actually turn up on time. The current rail network is a shambles.

I think the government should start there own company to increase competition and allow for a cheaper alternative

Yes, but add a watchdog and set a maximum profit limit to encourage reinvestment into clean energy developments of public transport and reinvestment into infrastructure

Yes, but only if enough competition is created to force the organisations to innovate and provide the best service at the cheapest cost

Privatization only works if the people in charge know what they're doing. Selling for the sake of selling is a waste of time.

The ownership is less important than the structure. It should be either a nationally owned monopoly or a privately owned monopoly with government oversight and subsidy.

Critical services should be nationalised. The rest of the privatised services need a new model of competition.

Rail tracks should be maintained and regulated by the government, but trains could be privatised. Local stations should be regulated by the national government so that there are standards for safety and accessibility, but more control given to local councils to make their stations excel beyond the basic requirements. -Similar to airports and private airlines.

Government should be a majority shareholder and dictate some of the running, profit caps and reinvestment should be governed

Yes, but with multiple operators allowed on the same lines to allow for competition rather than hidden monopolisation encouraging better service and lower fares

No. Public transport should be improved and more incentivised to increase use. Rail travel is currently too expensive and when more than one person is traveling it is more economical to drive. This should not be the case

Resolve ticketing issues and provide a better service for passengers. Doesn’t matter who runs the service as long as this is resolved.

No, national infrastructure should be owned by the nation and operated for the benefit of the population.

Fines on rail services companies that don't achieve sufficient performance criteria. Fines given back to service users

I'm divided on the topic, as a big trainspotter there are benefits and downsides to both privatisation and nationalisation.

Yes, the current privately owned sections run better than they did, the issue is the infrastructure that is still owned by the government

A balance to ensure that the most utilised regions are accommodated for and works take place, rather than going to the highest bidder who strips them for profit.

It just needs to be improved and priced to encourage the mobility of people - levelling up more areas.

Complex, get top business people to consult on whether it would be more cost effective. Tap the profits they are allowed to make???

UK trains are an embarrassment. Can anything change that? Where's HS2? After all that time and money!

Either privatise it or nationalise it but make one company responsible for the rails & the trins & simplify fares

Should never have been Privatised. I worked for British Rail for close on 14 years, but had a feeling that it was never going to be the same when it was Privatised, and accepted voluntary redundancy

No, but harsh penalties must be in place and higher compenation paid to consumers when trains are cancelled due to failed service, repairs and/or strikes

Yes, but on the model of European countries where the parent holding company is owned by the national government.

Maybe It should be privatized but the operating companies need to be held to account on prices and service.

No but they should be held to account for expenditure, price raises and fined for insufficient service levels

Government should own the rail infrastructure, but allow private companies to operate on it. There needs to be more than one high speed operator per line

Hire in loads of japanese people to run the UK railways so they are efficient. Japanese people love making railways efficient.

Privatisation only works with true competition. So if we build parallel tracks and have rival companies compete that run both trains and tracks then it might work, but that’s impossible so nationalisation makes sense, or at least it would if we didn’t have a history of underinvestment in infrastructure and capitulating to unions who protect shirkers rather than workers

yes but minimum investment into infrastructure required by contract holders. where no bigger is found then the state should iterate. do not add additional incentives

As private lisences expire the govt takes the contracts and runs them as arms length publicly owned companies

No, stop privatisation. Have them be run by the government but beholden to regular checks so that they are not left to disrepair

Yes, however impose stricter regulation on late travel, prices, bonuses to staff. Furthermore, subsidiaries from UK tax should not be allowed.

I think the railway is to fragmented and needs more central management not necessarily privatisation

No, Trains are no longer an affordable cheaper method of transport. The system needs investment and changes to bring costs down considerably.

It’s useless and unreliable under current conditions it needs to change so it’s more reliable and cost effective

Yes, but only if it will improve service and infrastructure and that safety critical jobs are protected and paid correctly

There should be a feasibility study into of nationalising the railway would result in better value for money for the state. If it would not benefit the state then keep it privatised and regulate the businesses so they invest in the system.

Yes but only if they are held under strict guidelines that they must invest a % of their profits on maintenance & services without hiking prices up disproportionately

Yes, but introduce much robust and stricter service rules so that poor service can be dealt with easier

dont really have an opinion. If privatisation meant the workers would be fairly paid it is good. However it would then mean they could charge however much they want for fairs etc which I disagree with. I dont really have an opinion on the matter. I just want a fairly paid and reliable service as a commuter

National railway should be funded by government and be free travel ! I would be happy paying my taxes knowing I could have free train travel

The national railway should be a system that allows people from mainly heavily populated areas to be easily interlinked, privatisation should only occur in smaller and more rural areas of the country.

A hybrid stance of freight privatisation but passenger rail, and the track operation, should be in public hands.