Comment: The stakes have been raised on rail ‘renationalisation’

Ah, the irony. The focus of much of the media coverage on South Western Railway’s return to the public sector was on the fact that the first train was a bus replacement service.

Leaving aside that the PR managers should have pulled out all the stops to ensure this did not happen, this was a trivial aspect of a transfer which actually signalled a rather important change.

But triviality rules in this era of social media, although I have to confess that I was guilty myself of the same emphasis on the inconsequential.

In The Independent of January 31 1996, I wrote a front-page story which revealed that the first privatised train for 50 years, this time between Fishguard and Cardiff, would be a bus replacement service.

Of course, that was a deliberate dig at the whole privatised process, in the same way that opponents of renationalisation have used the same meme (a word, incidentally, that was not used 30 years ago) in reverse.

I was actually on the first privatised train, which ran at 0510 from Twickenham to Waterloo, and I regaled readers with the fact that the regular punters, of whom there were barely a dozen, were surprised to find half a dozen ticket inspectors at the station… who promptly nabbed several of them who clearly had been used to free travel on this early service.

But this emphasis on the easy headline about bus replacement services masked the significance of the South Western Railway takeover.

Of course, just to add to the complexity of the story, this was not the first franchise to be taken over, as four are already in the hands of what is now known as the DfT Operator - the body which runs franchises that are no longer in the private sector.

But this time it’s different. Those franchises were taken over because they had failed, either operationally or financially, and therefore by definition they were in a bad state.

Now, however, the operations being subsumed into DfT Operator will not necessarily have failed. Indeed, they may well be flourishing, as is the case with Greater Anglia, which is due to be taken over in October (after c2c in July).

Therefore, there is a strong imperative for the Department for Transport to run these new in-house operations effectively.

The government has set a lot of store by the ‘renationalisation’ of the railways - in inverted commas, because it is only a partial takeover given that many of the old BR’s functions will remain in the private sector.

It is an emblematic policy strongly supported by Labour MPs and members, and even (so far) by the public. It is therefore vital to be shown to be a success, as a demonstration that the state can be just as good (or better) than the private sector at running public services.

Actually, the process has been given a boost by the results of an earlier state intervention.

In May 2023, TransPennine Express was taken over as a basket case because of its terrible performance.

I went up there a few months later, and I was impressed with the energy and commitment of the staff - notably Chris Jackson, the managing director. He was open and honest about the failings, and while committing himself to improvements, was careful not to over-promise or make rash predictions.

And it has paid off. TransPennine Express has released figures recently showing remarkable improvements.

According to its press release, “since transferring into public ownership in May 2023, TPE has reduced cancellations by 75%, increased customer journeys by 42%. and grown revenue by 54%”

That has been greatly helped by the ending of the drivers’ dispute soon after Labour’s election victory last July, but nevertheless these are undoubtedly impressive figures - reflected in passenger satisfaction soaring from 5% to 94% (although I am slightly suspicious of this, as it smacks of the type of election figures that dictators enjoy).

However, despite any doubts about the precise numbers, there is no question that even anecdotally things have improved immeasurably.

Jackson is in no doubt about how this has come about, saying: “Public ownership gave us the space and stability to reset. Our focus has been on people, our passengers, our colleagues, and the communities we serve.”

That is true. Even some of the people who reluctantly transferred to public ownership have told me that management is far easier in the public sector, as the line of accountability is simpler.

The bigger picture here is that this ‘renationalisation’ is part of a wider transformation taking place not just in Britain, but across the world. The worldwide phenomenon of globalisation with neo-liberalism at its heart is being reined back.

The downsides in terms of loss of sense of community, the displacement of millions of people out of their jobs, and the general sense of insecurity that this process has created, have become all too apparent. Taking back control may well be the order of the day, even if not quite in the way envisaged by Boris Johnson.

Indeed, I have been struck by how many people responding to my various articles and media appearances express a great fondness for BR. And (more importantly) what it represented - public service.

The mainstream media goes on about sandwiches and the wrong types of snow, but it misses the point about how BR gave people a sense of belonging, of knowing that it may have been bad at times, but at least it was theirs.

The privatised companies enjoyed no such ambivalence. They were quite simply disliked because they were perceived (correctly, some of the time) as being interested only in maximising profits.

This process will be fascinating to watch, as us railway watchers have a front seat to observe progress on one of the crucial policy areas for government.

In particular, I look forward to watching the politicians grapple with the complexity of the issue. They will need to pay a lot of attention to the railways, while refraining from micro-management and avoiding making decisions they may regret.

All sorts of things need sorting out - from fares to HS2, and from climate change to cyber attacks.

The pressure, though, will hopefully bring about similar results to those enjoyed by TPE. Making sure that talented managers such as Jackson stay the course will be crucial.

Here’s to the success of the new structure.