The railways are essential for economic prosperity and social cohesion. Such is their importance that they cannot be subject to the whim of individual owners and shareholders

It's not only the profits of private rail companies that would be saved by this. There is a large industry dedicated to managing the interfaces between all the private & public players in the current set-up. These include lawyers, insurance companies, people sorting out delay attribution and compensation and much more.

All this leads to the vastly greater costs that passengers & the taxpayer are having to fund.

In my lifetime fares have gone up massively above inflation, services have been cut despite increasing usage (like the Lowestoft -> Manchester direct that I used to use to visit my family) — while the companies running our trains have reported massive profits. We have the most expensive rail system in Europe, and it's getting in the way of our lives, from work to socialising to campaigning.

Public ownership would mean all profits ploughed back into the system, the end of a fragmented services with so may private companies involved and an over-arching policy to ensure efficient services across the country

It is ludicrous that some private companies or individuals are receiving huge "dividends" from the railways when government is paying out subsidies.

The system is too fragmented and broken because it is operated by too many players who tend to be insular in their thinking and operating. Journeys are not guaranteed to be completed on time or to be completed by rail and not by bus.

Ticket prices are far too high, especially turn up and go fares, and according to experts are a third higher than they should be entirely due to privatisation.

Government is now paying almost twice as much to Operating companies as they did to British Rail, at 2018 prices, in subsidies, our taxes.

Take back franchises as they come up for renewal.

We are shamed when we see the quality of railways in other countries.

I have travelled between Newcastle and London on The East Cost mainline for decades, including prior to retirement for work. Private rail franchises have failed badly. Public ownership is better in theory and practice. Governments (of whatever colour) need to get behind effective delivery of public ally owned services.

I want a single coherent structure for our railways - take Deutsche Bahn as your model, and a public ownership model - may be like Deutsche Bahn but other of good,successful examples are possible. Get good experienced railway people running it but NOT direct state control please - ministerial interference has been a disaster.

I want railways to be in public ownership so that profit will be put back into the organisation instead of the stock-holders' pockets. I've had enough of supporting the wealthy whilst the public suffer.

The taxpayer should not be footing the bill to prop up the dividends of shareholders of train companies that are inefficient, run late repeatedly when they run at all and don't plough profits into improving the infrastructure. These companies should NOT be subsidized by the taxayer! Public ownership can only improve the service which is truly broken.No more privatization!

Railways are a public service, and as such should not be run for profit. They should be publically owned. They are in the awful mess they are in because profit has been systematically put before the needs of the railway using public...they are a disgrace.

It's time to bring back our shambolic railways into public ownership. The private sector is incapable of putting their passengers first.

Our railways are not only a part of our heritage but a key part of our national infrastructure. By taking back control we can ensure that the service works for all British people. Improving peoples lives as they can travel with greater ease at less cost and also increasing the attractiveness of our country for foreign investment in our town and cities. These can become better connected by a reimagined, public railway. Britain should be proud of its railway heritage and continue to be proud of it today, however, this is only possible by public ownership in order to bring it back to competency!

I travel daily by train for work, whether to my local offices or those across the country, as well as at least weekly for leisure. The service seems to constantly be getting worse, yet prices go up.

I know people who work for the east coast main line, and they have been very able to deliver the service better whilst publicly owned. The sale of the franchise to private entities seems to bring change and cost cutting constantly for no reason but to increase profit for their shareholders.

In addition the carving up between network rail and franchises seems to allow accountability to be diluted.

I have come to the belief that essential services such as transport must be publicly owned to ensure accountability. This also avoids companies leveraging their debt and stripping assets from franchises which then results in better returns for shareholders but a poorer service for the public. It is also not a purely academic exercise, as the east coast did demonstrably run more on time, with better feedback from the public.

We are wasting resources paying for profits for private companies. Public ownership matures sense

The privatised railway isn’t working - it’s time to give public ownership a chance

Please take this seriously..... OAP Rita

I want to be be able to afford to visit places, I want my children to be able to go to museums and plays in London and other towns and cities.

If HS2 and CrossRail represent the most significant investment in public transport by government in at least a generation then following a similar logic, why can't our existing railway companies fall within the ambit of public finance too? Our leading competitor nations never considered full railway privatisation. Can we not evolve towards a superior publicly funded model of transport for the people.?

Privatisation has clearly failed to improve the railways, and has led to disorganisation, confusion, increased need for subsidies and increased bureaucracy. The split of the railways into operations, infrastructure and rolling stock ownership clearly doesn't work very well, negating any idea of integrated services, or even of planning them.

I live in the North East of England (Teesside). You will obviously be aware of the ongoing farce that franchising has resulted on the East Coast Main Line services, which each new franchisee over estimating how much revenue they can rip out of the travelling public and seek more financial lifeboats from the Govt. The Govt has wisely refused to do this, but fails to notice that the service improves when taken back into public sector operation. Meanwhile, the minor lines operated by the Northern franchise visibly rot through neglect - services identical those operated 20 years ago still operate, using 40 year old trains that were inadequate when new. We are now supposed to celebrate the Pacers are being replaced by slightly better trains that are equally old but 'refurbished', and some trains that are 'only'

30 years old. Of course, we pay rapidly increasing fares that fund infrastructure improvements in the South East like Crossrail and HS2, but no investment ever reaches the North.

The state of the railways is so bad that it is obvious that something has to change. Privatisation has made things worse, so Public ownership must be re-established so that a more coherent approach can be taken.

SICK OF TORY RIP-OFF AND LIES

There's still no improvement on train punctuality, and still as many cancellations as ever.

Necessary infrastructure such as railways are essential for the running of the country and should not be used to provide profit for shareholders. Vast subsidies to inefficient private companies are unjustifiable and a waste of taxpayers’ money.

You cannot say that as a nation we haven't given it a good 'go'. Time to stop the fat cats eating the cream and put it back into public ownership!

Can't argue with any of the above.

There seems to be a view that returning to a nationalised British Rail service would only lead to the chaos that we all experienced twenty years ago. And this from the wonderful free-market experts who knew everything about what should be done to provide a world class service. Instead of course, they have done more damage than was possible under British Rail and we now have one of the worst services in the free world.

We may be stubborn, but we are not stupid. There is much that can be achieved as a nationalised service that it wasn't achievable in the past, and we have no intention of making the mistakes of the past. We are not asking that no one should own it, which is perhaps what did happen at times previously. We own it, and therein lies the responsibility and the opportunity to get it right.

Despite Vicious rumours to the contrary(Mr Grayling!) the unions only want what's best for the staff and travelling public.

This will NOT be a return to the 'Bad old days of BR!' either. If suitable funding is made available like never before, we can all have a railway system which is efficient , effective and economical.

A railway run FOR the purpose of public travel.

The biggest problem is fragmentation

DfT (the government) sets the goals. The DfT tells the francisees the what & how. The DfT tells the franchisees what with (ie the trains). The ORR (another part of the government) is judge & jury

No one makes it all work TOGETHER, meanwhile everyone has to make a profit!

Chaos

Publicly owned railways, run in the public interest, enable the national economy and society.

In contrast, privately owned railways, run for private commercial interests create frictions which hinder both.

I think the railways should be in public ownership the way they have been run at the moment is not in the interest of the public, they have been treated terrible firstly by this government and the way they have sold it on to private investors who don't care about the Railway and the public but how much shareholders get

It's nonsensical that the British public pays taxes to help maintain our railways, so that train's owned by overseas companies can profit from the sale of train tickets.

Nationalise the Railways now!

Public transport is a public good and should be seen as a natural monopoly with no place in it for private profit

The privatisation of a network where competition is largely irrelevant was always a nonsense. The cost of administering the interface between the differing entities, leave alone the cost of disputes, is ridiculous;ly high and a gross waste of money. The East Coast line was run very successfully my a not-for-profit body by staff who understood railways. With tghe necessary internal best practice drive a public system is on every count a better bet.

Privatisation of the railways has been a disaster in all regards. Continuous ridiculous fare increases combined with poor, unreliable services have been the result with companies keen to maximise profits at all costs. The latest 'wheeze' where I live is Northern Rail demanding driver-only trains, with all the risks to safety that comprises. The RMT has been striking for months on Saturdays, but most of the public are 'with' those strikers who are not working to highlight the error of Northern Rail's plans.In these times of global warming and climate change people should be encouraged travel by rail, but this clearly is not happening. Rail throughout the whole of the UK should be part of a new integrated transport policy and system. And, the current incomprehensible ticket price system is a nightmare.Bring railways back under public ownership, not exactly following the model of pre-privatisation, but BETTER. Look around the world, find where it is done well and inculcate best practice. The present situation is unsustainable and untenable. DH

I have to suffer GTR from King's Lynn to Cambridge and London. This service certainly is not fit for purpose. Back in the 1970's and 1980's this service was an Intercity service. Now it is run using cascaded 387 suburban sets with seats like ironing boards. Despite rising patronage, only four car units can be used due to short platforms even though the aforementioned 10 or 12 coach Intercity trains managed at short platforms. Only one train an hour can run due to Ely north junction being a single track bottleneck handling trains to King's Lynn, Peterborough and Norwich. We have been promised eight car trains and a half hour service for several years now but nothing gets done. Even off peak trains are packed to standing. Toilets are frequently out of order. Journey times got longer, not shorter, with the May 2018 timetable. Trains now have to wait for each other to leave the single track sections and are frequently delayed. AND YET THE FARES WENT UP IN JANUARY!!!!! Enough is enough. It is time to renationalise the railways. Complaints to GTR do not get answered. Private companies have shown that they cannot cope and do not care.

,

Run by 1 body owned by the public like it used 2 be any profit reinvested

Privatisation of the railways has proven to be an unmitigated disaster viz-a-vis the East Coast Mainline has operated far better since being taken back into public ownership and has returned monies to the public purse instead of them being taken out by the private operators.

The rail system has gone badly downhill since being split into private ownership. I would not consider travelling by train as it stands.

I support returning our railways to public ownership. This would mean that railways are run for the public, not for private profit. The savings created would then be reinvested in the networks, to benefit everyone.

Privatisation of railways has been a disaster, and somewhat ironic in that some of the franchises are run by other countries' state-owned railway companies

Long journeys work much better with public ownership because of co-operation between the different lines to make connections work and to save always having to travel through London ie direct routes save adding to pressure on London Transport. This also makes life simpler for disabled people.

Our railways are clearly not currently fit for purpose.

Public ownership of the railways will result in a better, punctual service with lower prices

I like the idea of removing shareholders as I do not see why they should take profits from a service that is so essential for the public and for the economy.

Public ownership was a success for the East Coast Mainline, why not consider public ownership for the whole of the railway network. More privatisation will not fix the problems - privatisation has already failed rail users. The British public want public ownership of the whole railway system.

When I first saw the plan's for the railway's year's ago we knew what was going to happen,and so my wife and I made the decision not to include railway travel in any travelling arrangement's we needed to make.

We realised that a government comprising of large number of incompetent member's who like the kudos of being in charge without much input from themselves would start and continue to privatise and farm out as much of our infrastructure as they could,regardless of whether it made sense or not.

They could then sit there with their cronies and pass the buck when thing's go pear shaped.

It s stated time and again that passenger number's are up but I feel sorry for the majority as they are seen as cash cow's who have less choice in the matter.

The public must own services where there is no choice on who delivers the service.

I'm old enough to remember British Rail and how we loved to complain about it . I have been shocked and appalled by how very much worse the railways have become since privatisation . Enough is enough - it is time to admit the failure of the private ideal and go back to a publicly owned system . Yes even with all the problems BR had !