Chiltern Railways’ services became the latest to transition into public ownership on Sunday, marking the sixth train operator to be nationalised by the Government.
The UK’s largest train operator, Govia Thameslink Railway, alongside c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway, and West Midlands Trains, have already been brought into public ownership by the Government.
From December, the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed that 25 additional daily Chiltern Railways services will be introduced to help tackle “overcrowding”, delivering 10,000 extra seats during each weekday. This plan incorporates half-hourly weekday trains running along the Chiltern main line between London and Birmingham, as well as an increase in weekend journeys.
To be fair, not even Thatcher dared attempt rail service privatisation. It was her disciple Major who pushed it through and enthusiastically promoted battling business units on rails in Brussels.
Ah my bad. I thought most of the privatisation over there was under her. Did she do the water and BT or was that him too?
Most of it was. BT was Thatcher and she did most buses too. Water was started by her, after chickening out at least once, but finished under Major.
Major has a surprisingly popular “underdog” reputation because he was uncharismatic, won against poll predictions in 1992 and he had lots of infighting in his own party, but he was a pretty zealous capitalist in practice.
The privatisation of British Rail did indeed begin under Thatcher, though she did so with reluctance due to the obvious need for ongoing subsidy. Sealink and the hotels were the first parts to go in 1984 (at much less than book value).
These were swiftly followed by a laundry company set up for the hotels, an internal ad agency, a travel agency, and the Vale of Rheidol railway which was privatised in 1989.
Aye, but as I wrote, she chickened out of the actual passenger services and Major finished it.