Why should the British rail users subsidise railways in France, Germany, Holland etc it stinks. At least we have East Coast back which should never been handed over to Virgin Statgecoach. East coast was making a profit for the tax payer. I believe that all essential services should be publicly owed and not handed on a plate to who ever and end up ripping off the public. I do not vote labour and never would while Corbyn is leader.

The last few years has shown that privatisation does not work. People want a better deal from the railways with more investment and less waste through corporate dividends.

Private profit and the interests of shareholders has always trumped the public interest and government has regularly bailed out failing firms. Time for proper public investment in a vital public asset - and that means public ownership.

The railways are a public service, and should be run as a nationalised rail service. Not putting profits intp private shareholders

Must have all public transport put in to the public's hands. trains cancelled, buses not turning up or come early and late fares are expensive certain stations in rural areas have been closed leaving passengers with no train service to rely on.

I object to the shareholders in private companies getting huge dividends when the railways in this country are in such poor shape. Trains are overcrowded, often dirty, rarely punctual and horrifically expensive compared with those in other European countries. Surely we could do better.

Let's take the profits that private ownership squeeze out of the rail system and improve the network and customer experience.

I want our railways to be run by the UK without putting money into the hands of foreign investors who use the money to subsidise their own railways. We deserve a rail network of the standard of the rest of Europe with comparable fares and service.

I remember a time, under British Rail, where I could go to my local station and know that I would pay a single price for my ticket, without having to navigate a jumble of different tariffs for different railway companies.

I also remember that British Rail Engineering was the envy of the world. Indeed, the Class 43 HST power cars, intended as a stop-gap until the Advanced Passenger Train came into service, are only now, after 34 years, being replaced. Since Privatisation, such innovation has been left to foreign companies, with consequent loss of advanced engineering expertise.

The only way to keep railway fare increases affordable is to break-away from private ownership back to public ownership. Without shareholders receiving the profits, these can keep fares within reasonable increments in line with inflation, as well as more investment in better rolling stock (carriages). Also, Britain needs to keep the train companies in close liaison with network rail.

Public transport should be a service for the public not a means of making a profit for shareholders.

Employ the correct managers and all that profit could go back to the railway.... See deuche bahn! Take the private away from our railways!

I use the railways to visit family who live in many areas of the UK. It is also one of the biggest reasons why I do not see them as often as I would like. The price of a ticket has risen drastically over the years with no sign of relenting and has made it unaffordable for me to use on a regular basis

With the cost of living going up e.g. electricity, gas, food, rent. It is near impossible to make the wage I earn to last and I live on a budget where every penny is accounted for, so as not to overspend and go into debt. And please read me correctly here I am not counting every penny so I can afford a new car, holiday, or any other luxury item this is so I do NOT go into debt.

I am a labour supporter, I joined the party when Jeremy Corbyn came to the leadership contest and I have been a member ever since and will remain so.

I support him and the Labour policy of taking back into the public sector those industries that are essential to the running of a major industrialised country. Such as: public transport, energy providers and the health care.

All the above industries have privatised wholesale or through underfunding and selling of bit by bit such as the NHS.

The private providers have done nothing but run down the industries such as the railways by lowering the wages of the staff, not maintaining or updating the infrastructure and by taking the money and giving it to shareholders rather than reinvesting it back into the sector from which the money came.

It is time now that the railways where taken back into the public sector. The argument that the public sector can not do it as efficiently as the private no longer has any weight. The East Coast Railway was the perfect example of a failed private sector franchise that was taken back into the public sector and became one of the most trusted and well-run railway lines (one I used on a regular basis when I commuted from Berwick upon Tweed to Newcastle several times a week for college). The East Coast railway as I assume you will be aware was sold off into the private sector and failed miserably within a year and had to be bailed out at considerable cost to the tax payer again (a recurring trend with the private sector, the financial crash of 2008 being the biggest of them all since the great depression and again the poorest and weakest in society have had to pay for).

Many are tired of the old trope of private knows best, it does not. I t is time to rethink how the essential industries are run in the United Kingdom. Whether it is renationalised now or under an eventual Labour government that will be elected into office by people like myself fighting every step of the way. But rest assured it will happen and I hope you are the one to help make it happen and make commuters lives a lot easier by not seeing a huge chunk of their income gone each month for the privilege of an overcrowded, underfunded, overpriced train.

And I will end on appositive note I read an article that Luxembourg is set to trial a brave new initiative to tackle road congestion and climate change (one of the most pressing dangers of human history) and mark a cultural shift in their society from cars to public transport and reduce their carbon emissions.

An effective, coordinated national system for all of the nation. For all the people not useless and inconsiderate profit at the expense of the citizenry and the nation.

When the East Coast Main Line had to be returned to public ownership because the private companies reneighed on their deal, it made a good profit under public ownership, which proves it can work. This should be extended to the entire network as the existing franchises naturally expire.

Many other countries have publicly-owned railways. Without having to pay shareholder profits, there is more money to invest in better services, better infrastructure, and lower fares. Our railways are over-priced owing to have to pay shareholders - and they deliver very poor service.

Rail privatisation has had very little to do with the huge increase in passenger numbers, which has instead been due to demographic change and commuting growth. We need to stop seeing public money siphoned off into shareholder profits and instead invest it in infrastructure and services. The railways belong in public hands as a strategic and socially essential utility. The privatisation experiment has failed - now is the time for renationalisation.

Our rail network is a natural monopoly and, as such, should be owned and run by a he state, who have a good track record at running the system when allowed.

Im 77 and have seen the railways through the 40s 50s 60s and seventies' The present service on our railways is worse now than after the last war .

Trains were always on time a far better service than today's absolute chaos. Privatization is good for investors only completely ignoring the commuters who depend entirely on the service .This governments priorities are not for the commuter but huge cream offs for the richer Tory INVESTING voter.

Bring back public ownership of this once proud service .

I would love to use the train rather than my car for getting around, but it is just too expensive. So expensive that travellers have to be tempted with discount railcards. Soon only people of 30-60 years old will be required to pay undiscounted fares. Surely it makes sense to nationalise the railways and make rail travel affordable for everyone

We were told that subsidies would not be needed bacause of private ownership and investment. That hasn't happened. Instead, the subsidies have got ever larger with a sevice that is fragmented,too expensive, chaotic and unreliable .

It would be a rare commuter today that would argue that privatisation has delivered for them. Nationalisation may not fix every problem, but a system that works for the people and is accountable to them is infinitely preferable to the situation today.

The worst thing about the railways is the fragmentation which means that millions of pounds are wasted on pen-pushers and bean-counters arguing the toss when things go wrong. Now the minister is 'Failing Grayling' who has a track record of doctrinaire privatisations such as the probation service, which then have to be reversed by the next minister. According to a recent BMG/Independent poll, even 56% of Conservatives are in favour of renationalisation. Please listen to the 76% who support renationalisation. Thank you.

It would be a good plan to make public transport public. As in owned by us for us. If you really want private ownership of transport so much then privatize private transport. Build no roads, mend no roads with public money. Put all roads out to tender and allow companies to own them and charge for travel on them. (Seem silly and unworkable? A hindrance to travel or movement of goods? Well der, of course! Just as it is for railways.) Do you get it? Only put into private hands things that are non essential, that matter not if they fail. In our railways, as in so many things rip off Britain is a laughing stock. (It is cheaper and very much quicker for me to travel by taxi than train.)

The prices and services are unbelievable. The worst in Europe. And all in the name of profit. Shameless to exploit passengers like this.

I want public ownership because this would be in the public interest, and more profitable.

Rail travel is an important public service which should not be left to private companies to provide. Safety and value for money would be better served in the public sector and staff pay and conditions would probably be better too.

Transport is a basic element of the country's infrastrucure all of which should be publicly owned and managed for the benefit of all. Surpluses would then go into investment rather than private profit.

I am absolutely sick of hearing of companies such as Virgin taking on the East-Coast rail franchise, and being paid for it, only to turn around in a few months and walk away from it, leaving the tax-payer to pick up the bill, and then for Virgin (or similar) to come back the next day and offer to run it again, and so we enter the same farce. Why should the tax payer take the risk, while the likes of Branson takes all of the profit?

The privitised model was set up to deliberately fragment the railways, leaving each private company with a monopoly, giving them a monopoly to print money. The whole model is broken and needs replacing with something that works. It is definitely time to return the railways to public ownership.

It is wrong that we, the public, should subsidise railways in order that investors should profit. It is astounding that Mr.Grayling should plan to hand further contracts to private companies after huge government bailouts.

Travelling by rail in the rest of developed Europe is a pleasure - inexpensive, uncrowded, straightforward, reliable, clean and user-friendly; the privatised rail systems in Britain, on the other hand, are an utter scandal - insanely expensive, packed to the gills, very complicated to navigate their ever-shifting routes and prices, thoroughly unreliable, ufailingly rude and unhygienic and focussed solely on extracting unworthy profits to benefit private owners and shareholders. Britain is leagues behind the rest of Europe in public services, especially transport, and this has everything to do with privatisation and the greed factor. It is shameful, it is not fit for service and is blatantly exhorbitant. God knows what foreign visitors, accustomed to smooth, affordable public transport, make of this outrageous scam that British passengers have to put up with. Britain is so much in retrograde now that our tawdry infrastructures snd public services are falling further and further behind the rest of the continent. Get all the private rail-route owners, subcontractors and off-shore share-holders out of public transport and RENATIONALISE NOW.

My local line out of Waterloo (South Western Railways through Chiswick) changed franchisee about year ago, presumably because the new incumbents were 'more competitive'. This has meant a marked deterioration in the service : fewer trains running on time, more cancellations, and an intransigent dispute with the unions - admittedly inherited from the previous owners. Whatever else is going on, the tendering process isn't working - but the franchisees' profits don't seem to suffer.

The handing back of the east coast main line, and the consequent excellent public management and the improved service proved 'public' can do it better!! Also, with proper public accountability, public ownership will remove the unscheduled bailing out of private sector companies with taxpayers money, when they get their sums drastically wrong.

We need an integrated rail network that is run as a public service and not to benefit shareholders. All the profit made must be ploughed back in, and Government must invest, to upgrade the railway network and rolling stock, pay an adequate number of well-trained staff, in order to create a modern railway fit for purpose that will benefit industry and business as well as commuters and tourists and that will encourage people to travel by train instead of by car, thus reducing dangerous air pollution and congestion on our roads.

Stop lining the pockets of the owners of privatised railways with public money. Take railways back into public ownership and recycle the takings into improvements.

As a youngster I travelled by train frequently. Since the railways were privatised there is no way I can afford this.

I believe they should be renationalised so that ordinary people can once again use their services.

Stop the profits leaving this country and subsidising other countries networks, keep the profits here reinvest and run the service for the people.

I want public ownership of our railways because many of the trains are too overcrowded and expensive to travel on with yet another rise in fares this year. A poor service iof delayed and cancelled trains has been experienced far too often. It’s not acceptable for the public to asked to pay higher fares while the services don’t improve on many routes. While the profits of shareholders has increased the railway staff and train drivers are being blamed for latest fair increase by Chris Grayling use to union demand for wage increases. The travelling public are fed up with a private operators charging more for a poor service which is heavily subsidised by the government.

We need a publicly financed, integrated railway system, run for the benefit of the public, not for shareholders, with adequate Government investment and where every penny made is ploughed back into the system to upgrade the rail network and the rolling stock, to pay a fully adequate number of well-trained staff (drivers, guards, engineers, maintenance workers ....)in order to create a modern railway that will stimulate business and industry as well as carrying freight and tempting ordinary travellers out of their cars (thus reducing dangerous air pollution and road congestion).

I note that, already, they're saying that trains on HS2 will be less frequent and will run more slowly to keep costs down. Had it been April 1st I would have thought someone was joking. This vanity project must be halted before it wastes any more money. Much needed upgrades to existing services - such as Trans-Pennine - should be put into effect as quickly as possible. Time for the people to make some decisions on these matters - not Failing Grayling and Co.

People want reliability. CHoice is less important. If we had reliable services which serve more of the country well that would be a great improprement. The railways should be a core part of our national infrastructure so that people can get out of cars. This would improve air quality, help reduce régional inequalities and enable those who do need to travel by road to have less congestion. Let;s get freight and people back onto the railways . This can really only be done by renationalisation, as there will be a need for some services to subsidise others in the public interest.

It was an absolute disgrace for British Rail to be privatised back in the 1990s and should have remained within public ownership. The railways in this country are a vital public service and should be nationalised as soon as possible.

The railways serve a public interest and are too essential to be subject to the whims and profit motives of private companies. When properly funded, British Rail ran an excellent and up to date service.

The railways were privatised by people who no longer believed in broad-based decision-making for the public good. They turned away from the challenge of supporting the democratic and accountable management of an essential feature of modern society and instead handed it to people at the top of the corporate world whose priorities are to maximise the return on their investment. Instead of paying those profits to remote shareholders or hiding them in tax havens they should be invested in the railways, in infrastructure and technology, in the skills and creative efforts of all who work in them. The railways used to be a source of national pride. Only in public ownership can they be a source of pride again. And what, truly, could be more important than that?

Allowing private companies to run services is supposed to make them competitive. Since each railway company holds a monopoly over their particular franchise, this clearly is not the case. Even where services are duplicated - such as on sections of the Brighton mainline - people do not choose services out of any sort of loyalty, or even on price, but because they want the next available train.

To exacerbate matters, there is a constant conflict between the companies and Network rail, with each blaming the other for anything that goes wrong. If the network and the services are all under public ownership, then these sorts of disputes becomes meaningless.

Definitely renationalise! Railways in state hands gives the government far more effective means to ensure that they are adequately maintained and that we all get a decent, effective, reliable and efficient service and control the fares from rising excessively. Then it will respond to needs rather than profit motives.

We used to moan about British Rail, but, oh, how IK wish they were back. Fares would be cheaper, co-ordination of the network would be efficient and timetables would be maintained.

Please release our railways from the need to create profits for shareholders and improve the service instead.

Yours,

John Breeds MBE

My wife and i travel on the railways approx once every 2 weeks. We have to change at Preston and its embarrassing to listen to the announcer apologising for lateness or cancellation on Northern Trains . With excuses like this is due to a train being taken out of service or there weren't enough drivers I dont know how they think them up because everyone is different do they have them written down in a book somewhere. I never new delays or crenelation of trains like this when it was British Rail and you were never jammed in like sardines there was always plenty of rolling stock and engines to replace a broken down one >The best thoing all round would be re nationalisation not more privateisation