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| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 08/12/2012 at 21:28 #38934 | |
Stephen Fulcher
2078 posts 
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Vertical disintegration within British Rail would not have been too difficult either though. The Government could simply have set up two separate companies to operate the infrastructure and trains respectively and then have them both "owned" by the British Railways Board. Privatisation was not necessary for the UK to comply with that particular directive, but the directive was a convenient excuse for the Government of John Major to justify privatisation. Log in to reply |
| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 08/12/2012 at 22:17 #38938 | |
Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
" said:Vertical disintegration within British Rail would not have been too difficult either though. The Government could simply have set up two separate companies to operate the infrastructure and trains respectively and then have them both "owned" by the British Railways Board.Indeed, which is what some other countries have done, but that still leaves the fact that we would have the horizontal structure in some form by virtue of EU dictat. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 12/12/2012 at 17:57 #39154 | |
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nnr
170 posts |
Thing is, Peter, what the EU actually wants and what actually works are two separate things. I agree with Stephen - his method would have worked fine. Neil Log in to reply |
| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 12/12/2012 at 20:28 #39161 | |
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Peter Bennet
5402 posts |
" said:Thing is, Peter, what the EU actually wants and what actually works are two separate things. Indeed, I know that only too well. " said: But "his" method is premised on the railways being divided as per EU diktat into a horizontal structure which you said did not work because Mr Stevenson had proven it. So my understanding is not that much further forward. Peter I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs! Log in to reply |
| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 13/12/2012 at 10:08 #39169 | |
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kbarber
1742 posts |
" said:" said:Thing is, Peter, what the EU actually wants and what actually works are two separate things. Stephen's proposed method seems to work reasonably well in Germany. I certainly agree with him that EU requirements were used as a fig leaf for Major's determination to "privatise" at all costs. (As the so-called privatised railway is actually a system of franchisees running services under contract to the government, we need to remember it isn't actually privatised at all.) Certainly the chaotic nightmare that came into being wasn't necessary to comply with any of the EU Directives. Even less necessary was the government prohibition on BR operating units putting in bids for franchises. (Perhaps they were afraid - and with good reason - that the incumbents would win hands down on any objective criteria, so the only way they could implement the poll tax on wheels (as the late Robert Adley called it) was to ban the people who really knew how to run a railway from entering the competition.) Log in to reply |
| Virgin loses West Coast Franchise to First Group 01/02/2013 at 09:20 #41041 | |
BarryM
2158 posts |
Rail franchising programme revised. Article courtesy of Railway Gazette International. Read More.. Barry Barry, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Log in to reply |