An inauspicious start to Great British Railways

Yes, I do think it was a bit of a PR gaff to have rail replacement bus on the changeover day as this kind of negative coverage was completely foreseeable....
But like the majority on here i welcome re-nationlisation. There's nothing inherently inefficient about public ownership provided there is sufficient funding and no political interference. I look forward to profits that were paid out as bonuses being reinvested in services or used to reduce fares. Bring it On! And water next!

@titchy some of the newer trains are clean and not too smelly. Unfortunately, the line I'm on, is frequently serviced by the older red, blue and yellow coloured trains rather than the new The Arterio fleet, which I rarely get to go on.

Not an investor, and actually delighted that they’ve been taken back into public ownership (now for the utility companies…) but I’m a few stops further out than NM, on one of the Guildford lines.

You must be lucky then. I'm also surprised that you always find the trains clean? Are you an investor? Only joking but seriously they are often dirty and smelly.

This article below shows that 5% of SWR trains were cancelled, this doesn't include all the times that the trains run but don't stop at every stop in order to 'catch-up' and be on time. Also, if you are at at the start of a route e.g. Shepperton to Waterloo you will probably always get a seat - heaven help you if you live in New Malden or later on down the line Rail renationalisation: Train firms 'will be told to cut cancellations to 2%' to tackle dire performance | The Standard

Dh and travel between 7.30 and 8.30 - so normal commute time.

@titchy you're very fortunate. Based on my experience you will be in the minority. Out of interest what times do you travel?

I’m also an SWR commuter - my line’s generally fine. Always get a seat, rarely cancelled and clean 🤷‍♀️

Exactly, I don't think most people think re privatising the railways worked at all. The whole idea of bidding for franchise of lines etc. is never going to work well

As some who commutes every week on South Western Railways the OP clearly doesn't know what they are talking about.

The trains are packed, smelly, dirty and frequently delayed or cancelled. Train strikes have been a common occurrence over the past few years, as are bus replacement services. Privatisation of the railways has been a massive failure and the sooner people recognise that the better.

I feel like I'm being robbed twice, once by paying private companies or investors to travel on the dirty, smelly, over packed train where I don't get a seat and again as a taxpayer, while we subsidise these train companies with our money! I for one am pleased this has happened. Roll on public ownership of the rest of the network along with the rolling stock please!

I remember British Rail. I remember it working and journeys not being too expensive. I remember ticketing that worked too. I remember when we had trains with adequate luggage facilities. GWR had proper buffet cars with restaurants.

I use LNER too and the improvement has been phenomenal since it was nationalised.

My two local train lines have been nationalised - LNER and transpennine express and they are both miles better now than when they were privately owned. I can remember one day when I wanted to get the train the 50 minute journey to the next big town and every train from 6.54 through to 15.54 (hourly service) was cancelled. No engineering works, no problem in the line, just cancelled for no apparent reason. That doesn't happen any more now they're publicly owned.

Oh and the train to Winchester was delayed an hour, we sat in the middle of nowhere not moving for an hour.

a replacement bus would have been an improvement.

Southwestern can’t get any worse. Last time I tried to get back from Winchester to Brockenhurst the trains pretty much weren’t running. Managed to get to Southampton. Where they said there wouldn’t be a train for 8 hours, they’re normally every 30 mins or something. They wouldn’t communicate, the only person trying to help was a cleaner. They refused to put buses on. I ended up getting an uber.

They did. The first train ran, in time, a teal
train, from Woking to Surbiton.

Sorry to spoil your narrative….

…but it wouldn’t have been beyond the whit of even a mid grade politician to run a train a few stops as the first service.

Good news then, because that first train ran from Woking to Surbiton, before the rail replacement bus.

Engineering works are planned and scheduled and timetables adjusted. They are essential maintenance on the network. They do rarely overrun but they certainly aren't "the biggest issue in terms of reliability." They mean the track is safe to use, perhaps you think that's unimportant?

I was right, you're just crowing.

It's quite staggering that people think there is a magic wand that solves problems and improves services overnight.
It's a bank holiday, there are always engineering works which are well publicised. There was a rail replacement so people could still get to their destinations.
Give your head a wobble as MN is so fond of saying

You seem to know better than everyone else and god knows the rail service could do with an expert. Go for it.

You're obviously the person for the job. Submit your CV.