Labour’s ‘renationalisation’ is no British Rail revival

4 December 2024, 10:55

The ‘renationalisation’ of the railways announced by Labour today is nothing of the sort.

It is a bringing together of train operations with Network Rail which has been back in the state sector for more than a decade. It is not the recreation of British Rail which had total control over all aspects of running the railways from timetabling and ticketing to engineering and owning the rolling stock.

In many respects, that is a shame. British Rail, contrary to the frequent cheap jibes about the quality of its sandwiches, was actually a very efficient and effective organisation in the last decade of its existence.

And it was a transport organisation, not a catering service.

In fact, BR created a brilliant brand, InterCity, under which it ran its long-distance services. Its London commuter sector, Network SouthEast, was so successful at filling off-peak seats that it broke even, an amazing achievement for a suburban railway. 

It was run on a tight budget but managed to make improvements, such as the electrification of the East Coast Mainline far more cheaply than the privatised organisations which succeeded it.

Unfortunately, the new ‘Great British Railways’ will be a far less powerful body. It will not own the trains, nor will it be able to make investment decisions without reference to ministers. However, it will be an improvement on the present structure.

By bringing together the operation of trains with the maintenance of the infrastructure, it will be able to make decisions which benefit the whole railway, rather than individual companies seeking to make a profit.

There will be no more expensive ‘delay attribution clerks’ arguing who caused delays and there will be no compensation payments to operators for services disrupted by necessary engineering works. It will be easier for rail managers to focus on reducing delays and cancellations.

The Labour government has a lot riding on the success of this change. Taking back control of the railways figured strongly in the election campaign and ministers see the renationalisation as an emblematic reining back of the Tories’ strategy of privatisation across a range of sectors from electricity and gas to water and transport.

Passengers, therefore, will expect to see benefits in terms of improved performance and quite possibly cheaper trains. If they don’t get those, there will be widespread disappointment and political failure.

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Christian Wolmar is the author of British Rail, a new history, published by Penguin books and presents the Calling All Stations podcast. @christianwolmar.bsky.social

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