An inauspicious start to Great British Railways

[Tryingtokeepgoing]

Well that’s started well 😂

As someone who remembers the shambles that was British Rail, and lives in an area with a frequent, cheap (off peak…) and reliable train service I’m not really looking forward to to a return to the past…

https://news.sky.com/story/first-renationalised-train-service-starts-today-but-not-how-youd-have-hoped-13373360?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR4yqUqiXKGYrHWwwxr3aGjndE7_Dwne_aSFUXh36oUzkTLgtg_-d667KrKQfQ_aem_3U3IOXCGbr3cnN7bBh5bQA

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

@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.

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!