That'll be the same "market" thats responsible for our chaotic railways and raw sewerage being discharged into our rivers.

Are you suggesting the railways and the water supply were better when they were in public ownership?

A big issue with both are the legacy issues inherited from public ownership?

On the news this morning it was suggested in would cost between £150-600bn to put the water/sewage supply back to where it should be.

I am all for public ownership of key services - I am old enough to remember when it was all in public ownership and I would say be careful what you wish for

But this is such a spurious, apples to oranges comparison.

How much money - from government and from fares - did we invest in the railways when they were in public ownership? They were starved for decades, we now pour billion upon billion into them with significantly higher fares and huge amounts are creamed off as profit for private enterprises. If we'd put the same amount into the privately-owned BR it would have made an amazing difference.

Look at DB, look at SNCF, look at FS and you'll see what properly-invested in, publicly-owned railway look like in terms of fares and network and reliability. The straw man of a desperately underfunded BR is almost irrelevant at this point.

So you have confirmed my analysis thank you - as I said be careful what you wish for when you are all clamouring for a return to public ownership.

I have no idea what you think you've proved but I travel thousands of miles a year on French and Italian railways and they are miles ahead of the railway services in the UK.

There's nothing shabby about being the third best railway in the world.

Quote chissitt="chissitt"There's nothing shabby about being the third best railway in the world.'" Very safe but with comparatively poor service according to this 2017 report. https://www.consultancy.uk/news/13535/e ... ce-quality

Quote chissitt="chissitt"There's nothing shabby about being the third best railway in the world.'" Very safe but with comparatively poor service according to this 2017 report. https://www.consultancy.uk/news/13535/e ... ce-quality

Having used the railways in countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Holland, Germany, France and Scandinavia, I can honestly say the UK railways, and service is are light years behind these countries.

So given that you agree with Nod, that makes us the 12th best railway in the world, not to mention that it must make you 5 times as knowledgeable about railways as him

The safety record in the UK is excellent but, service and "quality" of trains is second class.

It doesn't help that projects like HS2 take forever to sort our and then costs spiral out of control.
We are certainly behind the main EU countries.

Given the travel restrictions I doubt you will have travelled on any of these trains recently - comments like this need to be put in context. I can't remember the last time I caught a train and it was late - I catch a train on an average three times a month. Nothing wrong with the longer distance trains or the trains that do Leeds Ilkley etc. Leeds to Manchester - they are a disgrace.