-
On the whole it actually works pretty well by any objective measure
Citation needed.
Honestly dude, you need to start supporting your assertions with some sort of evidence. You come across like Al Murray, but without the jokes.
Whilst it's true that 'most' of the ticket price doesn't go to shareholders, when the government gives £4bn to bail out an operator who then pays £200m to shareholders rather than paying back the subsidy it's understandable that passengers feel short changed.
Hefty-
Honestly dude, you need to start supporting your assertions with some sort of evidence
I'm happy to and already did to a degree. Overall satisfaction as measured by the National Passenger Survey is at 80%, as of spring 2016. That's a survey of around 30,000 passengers.
90% of leisure passengers are happy, 82% of business passengers but only 72% of commuters, which I think probably says a lot about lack of seats and expensive tickets.
Over the last four years satisfaction on the whole has fallen by about 4%, so it's not great - and not good enough. But those figures don't suggest a dire service and I find it quite annoying when people complain about 'third world conditions' and such like: there's an awful lot of hyperbole.
If we were starting again from scratch I'd definitely want nationalisation, but services in Europe generally seem better to me - at least a lot cheaper - and they are still often run by private companies these days. The key difference is that they receive way more subsidy from the tax payer.
-
Whilst it's true that 'most' of the ticket price doesn't go to shareholders, when the government gives £4bn to bail out an operator who then pays £200m to shareholders rather than paying back the subsidy it's understandable that passengers feel short changed.
Absolutely agree, by the way. The franchise system is shit, for want of a better word. Another really big problem as the short franchises do not encourage investment. The few train operators who have negotiated longer franchises (such as Chiltern) have had much better results.
Fox
I didn't say nationalisation is inherently bad - my point is it's a distraction. If you actually want to sort out the problems with the rail network, sort out the problems. On the whole it actually works pretty well by any objective measure, so nationalisation is a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
If there is great public support for the policy (is there?) it's probably because most people think most of their ticket price is going to fat cat train operators and shareholders, which is far from reality.