BBC News Updated every minute of every day

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:39 GMT 20:39 UK

The bottom line is that rail fares are excessively expensive. The reason they claim they are excessive is that capacity in limited in the peak time and actively discourage use at these times. This is either because there are not enough train carriages or the railway lines themselves can not cater for additional services. Hardly suprising why National Express have lost revenue in the recession, it is still to drive the destinations served by the service.

Chris Beaven, Stevenage, United Kingdom

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:38 GMT 20:38 UK

Privatisation using the model adopted by the bureaucrats in the Department of Transport was doomed to failure. If the railways had been divided into groups owning their own track and rolling stock it might just have worked.
The present system is not free fom tinkering by the DofT. The time taken to procure new pasenger cars is incredible. They are not airliners with jet engines for goodness sake!
The whole system is just sympomatic of our national inability to manage things.

David Toulman, Walkington. East Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:32 GMT 20:32 UK

My husband used to work for the company that puts the food on the trains . No it should not be privatised the service is a total mess if they privitise it - it will just be worse than it is now

debi, plymouth

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:22 GMT 20:22 UK

By encouraging HIGH rail fares, the Gov guarantees petrol tax revenues! It will NEVER change under McClown. He's not even working the problem!!!! And they call themselves "socialists"!!!??

[EnglishJC], Fleet, United Kingdom

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:21 GMT 20:21 UK

privatisinmg the railways was the worse thing they evere
did .before then i could get a train from northampton to go to scotland with no changes now i have to make at least three changes with extra waiting time of hours,soon as it is nationalised the better .
if the goverment put the same amountof money into the railwys while still nationalised we would have probably the best in the world , before then there was no close down for track maintenece ,

brian feary, northampton, United Kingdom

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:18 GMT 20:18 UK

No doubt the staff will all be on strike soon.........

[Sepenenre]

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 19:07 GMT 20:07 UK

in the 70s all people complained about under nationalisation was,late trains,dirty carriages,poor service and strikes.as far as i can see they all still exist,the only difference i can see is that to see it these days you pay more in fares.when did putting best friends in charge of services ever work,this country is run on nepitism,which is closely followed by failure.keep it up britain.

paul, manchester

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:43 GMT 19:43 UK

Privatisation.....

Well in the 70s everything was Nationalised ...cheaper no mega price increases ,no fat cats
Dont believe the horror stories about 70s Britain knee deep in rubbish and anarchy,true it had problems but we still had the family silver
Trust me its Now thats anarchy
Thatcherism foooled us into thinking that the reds were going to have us alleating prridge in the gulag
We have become under privatisation just cash cows to be milked to provide cream for fat cats duped :(

Voltaire Reason, stoke on trent

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:31 GMT 19:31 UK

Privatised industries need competition to work. Monopolies of private companies leads to crappy services, huge charges and a lot of bonus to senior management.

Like road maintenance, the rails should never be left in private hands to maintain. There is no incentive for them to spend money on repairs until something goes wrong - it's bad for shareholders.

Rob, Wales

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:31 GMT 19:31 UK

The Government should have renegotiated the rail contract with National Express.

We are in the depths of a horrendus depression.

It would have been fair to renegotiate the National Express rail contract under these really dreadful economic circumstances.

Stephen Halden, Swindon, United Kingdom

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:07 GMT 19:07 UK

The problem is that the way service industries are organised in this country means one either has to have private companies, who by law need to place their shareholders first (not the public who use them), or else once gets government interference that mucks up the work of the people who actually know about the industry and, hopefully, have worked their way up through the ranks. Some areas should be owned by the public for their own benefit: rail, post, bus, power, education. That is the ideal.

[ddstretch]

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:05 GMT 19:05 UK

I had to pay around £90 for a standerd class day return from london to york which is just far to much to pay.
I had to cancel twice to visit my freinds because i didn't had enough money to pay the £90 return to york, unlike Grand Central which cost only £50+ return but if i pay that i cant travel any other rail apart from Grant Cental which i find it hard to catch it.

My final comment for the ECML is please dont replace IC125 & IC225 just keep rebuilding them. ECML was best with them around

andre gittens, luton

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 18:02 GMT 19:02 UK

What would the alternative be without privatisation? A one stop sub standard of train heading your way?

I remember a 'save our ships campaign' by the GMB I think it was and the Labour Party, back in the days of 'the British ship'. But we used a train going South from Central Station Newcastle Upon Tyne and a few business men jumped on board (for free).

And the train interior seats was just that old type of train/bus orange tartan and the cladding was just like a war submarine.

So.

Nick, s/s - uk

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 17:53 GMT 18:53 UK

Given that the privatization of the railways has yielded no reduction in fares through 'competition' , and that material benefits to the consumer are negligable , and also that the state still subsidizes these private companies . Now the ECML is back in public hands - isn't it time that the whole thing was put back in to public ownership , and the state commit to revitalizing the Railways ... maybe it could be called British Rail ??

John Withill, Leeds

Added: Thursday, 2 July, 2009, 17:32 GMT 18:32 UK

>>>>

The utilities blatantly over charge the customer and the watchdog seems impotent.

After over a decade there are still millions of gallons of water leaking all over the place.

On top of everything else this government has allowed our utilities and transport to be sold to foreign firms, with no real improvement in services or prices.

[RosieInLondon], London, United Kingdom