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i watched with interest a documentary on the bbc last night called potters bar the truth.

it recalled the 2 derailments at potters bar and ladbroke grove which took 7 lives at potters bar and the negligent way that our railways are being maintained and desipite the testomony of a train driver the 5 jarvis trackmen were never identified

as the paper work regarding the faulty points was lost but suddenly reappered but without the names of the 5 jarvis trackmen on them.

it named the cause of the derailment as missing bolts on the points stetcherbar.

and the management having no idea of how serious this was and incompitant and untrained trackmen beig let loose on our railways.

as a former trackman myself with british rail and various preservation societys as a volunteer the way the track is being maintained in the name of privatisation is diabolical.

railways are being run for profit not for passengers.

when it was british rail at least if you came across faulty points like the ones at potters bar you or a driver reported it and there would be a manager out to it within 24 hours or less and a engineering team would be dispatched as an emergency job.

now with the railways chopped up into so many bits no one knows who to report

to untill a derailment like this happens and the various managers start working together.

its time the government brought back british rail it can be done when the rail operators contracts expire they should be brought back under the wing of british railways or the government could buy the various bits of the railway back by compulsory purchase.

its time to nationalise now before another serious major disaster befalls the railways.

victor:-5

I couldn't agree more. The railways should never have been privatised, they are a public service and public services should be run for the public, not for profit.

The railways were nationalised in 1948 by the post war labour government. In the 60's many lines were discontinued by the Conservative government as they were not running at a profit (Tories always put money before the needs of the people).

Decades of lack of investment finally resulted in the privatisation by John Major's govt. in the 1990's.

Diuretic;487716 wrote: Why were they nationalised in the first place? I mean they used to be private but then BR was formed. And was Beecham the beginning of privatisation or simply a tightening up of a nationalised system?


It was a political football. Most of the railways ran at a loss pre ww2, during the war they were taken under state control labour always had nationalisation of rail and coal along with steel, electricity generation etc seeing them as key to the economy and too important to be left in private hands. It did used to be a socialist party.

Beeching shut down the railway network without any thought for the long term future arguing that everyone would soon own their own cars and social cost of shutting a railway was not a consideration. Now it would cost a fortune to reinstate it and both parties eschew the idea that the infrasrtructure like railways should be state financed for the good of the economy withouit regard for the immediate. By contrast france and germany take the opposite view. So they have decent transport. Both political parties refused to invest in the railways.

Maggie privatised them again for ideological reasons but did it it in a half arsed maner that causes more problems than it cures. national assets that were once state owned were put in to private hands and are now being bought up by the french and spanish companies -but our companies can't buy theirs because we are foreigners and their govt won't let them. TB keeps quiet in case anyone remembers labour used to be socialist and don't vote for them again.

UK politics can be very depressing sometimes.

speaking of Britain and trains....

At the library there is a whole shelving unit just for books on trains.

Think like - a lot of books



What's up with that? :-3

Kinda like how Canadians like beavers?

Diuretic;487888 wrote: Sort of I suppose. But do Canadians go for beaver-spotting?


On a Friday night? Yep.