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Topic: Privatisation of British Rail

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	Monbiot.com » The Great Railway Swindle
		The privatisation of British Rail was the apogee of bonkers Tory dogma.
		The chaos, fury and incipient collapse over which the private rail companies have presided during their brief and victorious tenure have been achieved with the help of an annual public subsidy three times that which British Rail used to receive.
		British Rail, she has found, was, by contrast to its popular image, efficient.
	www.monbiot.com /archives/1999/04/08/the-great-railway-swindle (780 words)

	British Airways - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		British Airways is pioneering the use of "flat beds" in the premium cabins on their long-haul routes, with introduction of a new flat bed in Club world Summer 2006 and on demand video IFE system keeping up to date with the competition.
		British Airways was forced to cancel 25 percent of its short-distance flights because of the airport's failure to cope with the situation, told British Airways CEO Willie Walsh on August 12.
		British Airways is part of the InterCapital and Regional Rail alliance, which in 1998 was awarded the contract to manage Eurostar (U.K.) Ltd. The company, which is the UK arm of Eurostar, the cross-Channel rail operator, makes up 10% of the alliance that also includes SNCF, SNCB and National Express Group.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/British_Airways (5636 words)

	Privatisation of British Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		In 1986 what may in retrospect be viewed as the harbinger of private rail operation occurred when the quarry company Foster Yeoman bought a small number of extremely powerful 3600 hp locomotives from General Motors' Electromotive Division (GM-EMD), designated British Rail Class 59, to operate mineral trains from their quarry in Wiltshire.
		British Rail was to be broken up into over 100 separate companies, with all relationships between the successor companies controlled by legal contracts and supervised by the Office of the Rail Regulator and, in the case of the passenger railway, the Office of Passenger Rail Franchising (OPRAF).
		In the original privatisation plan, Railtrack would have been the last part of British Rail to be sold, but with the approach of a General Election in 1997 Railtrack was hastily privatised in May 1996 in an attempt to ensure that the new structure could not be reversed.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Privatisation_of_British_Rail (4191 words)

	British Rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997.
		British Railways came into existence on 1 January 1948 with the merger of the Big Four as the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission (BTC).
		The failure of the Modernisation Plan led to a distrust of British Rail's financial planning abilities by the Treasury which was to dog BR for the rest of its existence.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/British_Rail (2599 words)

	Privatisation of British Rail - UK Railways (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		In 1986 what may in retrospect be viewed as the harbinger of private rail operation occurred when the quarry company Foster Yeoman bought a small number of extremely powerful 3600 hp locomotives from General Motors' Electromotive Division (GM-EMD), designated British Rail Class 59, to operate mineral trains from their quarry in Wiltshire.
		In the original privatisation plan, Railtrack would have been the last part of British Rail to be sold, but with the approach of a General Election in 1997 Railtrack was hastily privatised in May 1996 in a successful attempt to make Labour's planned renationalisation of the railways impossible.
		The privatisation has been widely criticised in terms of service to the passenger, and also on safety grounds in the aftermath of a few high-profile accidents (though the empirical evidence for the view that these could be attributed to the new structure of the industry is weak).
	ukrailways.wikia.com /wiki/Privatisation_of_British_Rail (2481 words)

	Essay: Discuss whether the privatisation of British Rail has been successful. Evaluate whether the new structure is ...
		Evaluate whether the new structure is likely to be a more effective and efficient way if managing a national rail network.
		Privatisation - returning the companies to the private sector - was the method that was developed.
		As with many of the later privatisations, British Rail was privatised in a way, which separated the natural monopoly from the potentially competitive parts of the industry.
	www.coursework.info /A2_and_A-Level/Politics/Discuss_whether_the_privatisation_of_British_Rail_has_been_successful_L12898.html (285 words)

	British Rail Privatisation: what it means and why it happened \| Workers' Liberty (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		British Rail privatisation is the most unpopular government policy in a generation.
		Since privatisation, we have seen the widespread introduction of agency staff working for companies which are famous for their cavalier attitude to safety; to their own staff, of the staff they work with, and also the safety of the travelling public.
		British Rail privatisation could have been stopped dead, but it required a sea change in attitude from the union leaderships to give confidence and form to a simmering resentment widespread in the whole of the industry.
	www.workersliberty.org /node/view/2094 (1361 words)

	British Railways - UK Railways (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		British Railways (BR), later rebranded as British Rail, ran the railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' companies in 1948 until its privatisation in stages between 1994 and 1997.
		British Railways came into existence from 1 January 1948, under the control of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission (BTC).
		Also during this time, yellow warning panels, characteristic of British railways, were added to the front of diesel and electric locomotives and multiple units in order to increase the safety of track workers.
	ukrailways.wikia.com /wiki/British_Railways (1533 words)

	House of Commons Hansard Debates for 14 Jul 1992
		British Rail is dependent on substantial subsidy from Government and makes large losses so it is not possible to sell all of BR, either as a single entity, or as separate businesses.
		It is perfectly reasonable to have a lease from the private sector if that leasing company is private-sector financed, but if it is public-sector money in the leasing company, or in any borrowing, it is public-sector money borrowed from the private sector that is effectively at risk.
		The rail regulator is designed to ensure fair access to the track and fair competition between those who operate on it.
	www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk /pa/cm199293/cmhansrd/1992-07-14/Debate-1.html (6056 words)

	PB Network \| Issue 53 \| UK Rail Privatisation and the History of Railtrack
		British Rail’s freight businesses would be sold off, as would the rest of its support capability.
		The haste of the British Rail privatisation and the extent of its fragmentation had denied Railtrack an adequate inherited record of the extent and condition of its operational assets, and plans to rectify this problem had been badly interrupted by the frantic preparations for flotation.
		During his time with British Rail, he was responsible for implementing the modern system of rail safety management that followed the Clapham Junction accident in 1988 and which in the five years after its introduction, halved the rate of fatal accidents on the network.
	www.pbworld.com /news_events/publications/network/tools/print_article.asp?referrer=/news_events/publications/network/issue_53/53_05_RaynorD_UKrailPrivatisation.asp (2105 words)

	RMT - The disaster of privatisation
		There is little doubt that the privatisation of British Rail was one of the most ill-thought through policies actually put into practice by a British government in recent years.
		The "track authority" was a private monopoly, Railtrack, whose charges were subject to regulation to try to keep it from abusing its monopoly position, and which could only be replaced at great cost to the taxpayer and travelling public (as we all discovered in 2001).
		The other key rationale of privatisation was the belief that an influx of private funding and investment would allow the Treasury to scale back public subsidy and allow private financiers to shoulder the risk.
	www.rmt.org.uk /Templates/Internal.asp?NodeId=92845 (1609 words)

	Christian Wolmar :: Books :: The Great British Railway Disaster
		Rail privatisation broke up British Rail into 100 component parts â“ and in the process created a whole series of anomalies that confused and irritated passengers.
		This book, written at the beginning of the privatisation process, is a series of amusing incidents which arose because of the way that the railways were fragmented.
		Rail experts predicted problems, and here they are: The Independent on Sunday ran a regular column on all those catastrophes that have struck the nation's rails since.
	www.christianwolmar.co.uk /books/disaster.shtml (371 words)

	Britain: Damning report on 1999 Paddington rail crash (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-19)
		It was at this time, in the run-up to rail privatisation, that the Conservative government changed the rules to allow continued use of the track before approval, “in order to avoid interruption to the operation of existing transport services”.
		Then, prior to privatisation of British Rail in 1994, the government decided that the cost—estimated at £3 billion—far exceeded the “normal safety investment criteria as measured by cost per equivalent fatality avoided”.
		At the time of the hand over from British Rail to Thames Trains in 1994, drivers were usually recruited from among existing staff, who had some knowledge of the railway industry.
	www.wsws.org /articles/2001/jun2001/pad-j25.shtml (1960 words)

	BBC NEWS \| Magazine \| How can rail privatisation be turned into a play?
		The tale of how plans were drawn up in 1991 to sell off British Rail into an infrastructure company (Railtrack) and several train operators (such as Virgin and Connex) does not, at first glance, seem to be the kind of thing that would make compelling drama.
		Opinion is divided on the merits of privatisation; many think it a complete disaster, but its defenders maintain for example that it succeeded in increasing the number of passengers on the trains.
		The formation of Network Rail from the ashes of Railtrack, and the recent announcement that maintenance work will be taken back "in-house" from sub-contractors, have been identified by some analysts as corrections to the privatisation model.
	news.bbc.co.uk /1/low/magazine/3260055.stm (722 words)

	Lessons from the U.K.
		Lessons from the U.K. THE worst rail disaster in the United Kingdom in the last decade - near Paddington station in London on October 19, 1999 - drew attention to the controversial privatisation of British Rail.
		The perception is that private rail operators and other entities are "flogging" public assets acquired at greatly-undervalued prices during the tenures of Conservative Party Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major.
		The privatisation of British Rail, following the Railway Act of 1993, is regarded as the most radical and far-reaching programme aimed at the privatisation of railways anywhere in the world.
	www.hindu.com /thehindu/fline/fl1814/18140950.htm (901 words)

	PB Network \| Issue 53 \| Supply Chain Management Approach - Post Privatisation
		Privatisation of British Rail led to a variety of companies following a variety of ways of managing the procurement, stocking and dispersal of supplies.
		In the pre-privatisation days, management of British Rail’s supply functions was much like any other railway’s in that requirements planning, procurement and material control activities were managed and controlled on a day-to-day basis by railway staff.
		PB is partnering with Unipart Rail Logistics in connection with this current tender activity and we have been informed recently that we will be included in the short list of tenderers.
	www.pbworld.com /news_events/publications/network/tools/print_article.asp?referrer=/news_events/publications/network/issue_53/53_09_KemererL_SupplyChainManagement.asp (2126 words)

	London Rail Travel
		Since the privatisation of British Rail, services have been franchised out to a number of private operators who own and maintain both the rolling stock and station facilities on lines which they operate.
		As the rail industry has long been blighted by under investment, the UK's train network is poor in comparison to the sleek and efficient rail services in much of Western Europe.
		The hope was that private sector discipline and investment would transform the situation for long suffering commuters, but so far, many of the expected improvements have failed to materialize.
	www.talkingcities.co.uk /london_pages/getting_there_rail.htm (2469 words)

	Public World - Publications
		If history has shaped our understanding of public services, the boundaries of the public and private realms and the way in which services are delivered in different contexts, these are also being transformed also by current economic and political change.
		It became increasingly clear that privatisation of public services not only happened to be an international phenomenon, as a result of one country copying another, but that it was essentially international.
		After four fatal train crashes in four years since privatisation, and with public subsidy to the privatised network much higher than when it was state-owned, and rising by the day, no-one in Britain doubts that the last major sell-off of the Thatcher-Major era has been a disaster.
	www.publicworld.org /publications/publications.htm (1021 words)

	CUPE > Parliamentary report condemns privatization of British Rail
		The all-party Transport Committee of the British House of Commons has issued a report which condemns the privatization of the UK rail system and calls for the creation of a new government agency very similar to the former British Rail.
		In arguing for creation of a new public-sector rail agency, the report by the all-party group of senior MPs says the record of British Rail in the 1980s showed that public subsidies could be reduced, financial targets met, investment increased and service quality improved.
		Since privatisation, the British rail system has been plagued by a series of deadly rail accidents, increasing costs and sharp declines in service quality.
	www.cupe.ca /www/transportationpriv/9495 (133 words)

	House of Commons Hansard Debates for 25 Feb 1992
		To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the current position on the proposed widening of the M6 and the competition for a private sector route in the Birmingham to Manchester corridor.
		I have also announced the decision that, for a variety of reasons, ranging from environmental to operational, none of the proposals received in response to the competition for a new privately-funded route in the Birmingham- Manchester corridor are to be taken forward.
		British International Helicopters, formerly British Airways Helicopters Ltd. (BAHL), a subsidiary of British Airways, was sold in September 1986, prior to the privatisation of British Airways.
	www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk /pa/cm199192/cmhansrd/1992-02-25/Writtens-6.html (2500 words)

	Erik's Rail News - December 2000
		"Privatisation not a Failure" A wholesale restructuring of the British rail industry as a cure for its troubles was rejected on Sunday by Sir Alastair Morton, chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, who insisted privatisation had been essential.
		VIA Buys Eurostar Night Trains Via Rail Canada has bought the Eurostar night trains which were supposed to have gone from northern England to Paris and other continental destinations.
		A broken rail is suspected to be the cause of the accident.
	www.eriksrailnews.com /archive/december00.html (1426 words)

	Rail Europe - The Experience You're Looking For
		Rail Europe is the UK's leading specialist in the promotion and sale of European rail travel.
		The railways of France have been represented in the UK for over 100 years, initially by some of the larger private companies who set up their own offices in London.
		In 1997, following the privatisation of British Rail, SNCF acquired British Rail International, which had offices in various parts of the world including America, Australasia and continental Europe.
	www.raileurope.co.uk /raileurope/about_us.htm (309 words)

	Britain hit by rail strikes
		Anger has been growing amongst rail employees, as they are forced to bear the brunt of travellers’ dissatisfaction when scheduled services are cancelled.
		For the five years since privatisation, drivers have been encouraged by both the rail unions and ScotRail management to work extra days to plug the holes in the company’s timetable caused by chronic understaffing.
		The company has also introduced a provocative emergency timetable, intended to isolate the drivers by cancelling over 500 services daily, far more than would be cancelled because of their rest-day ban, and announcing that the timetable will remain in force for up to six weeks.
	www.wsws.org /articles/2002/jan2002/rail-j10.shtml (908 words)

	Guardian \| Lord Taylor of Gryfe
		He moved the Forestry Commission's headquarters from London to Edinburgh and was against the merger of the Scottish CWS with its English counterpart, but from 1978 he opposed Labour's Scottish devolution plans.
		The recipient of a German award, he deserved a British one for fighting the splitting up and privatising of British Rail.
		Opposing the Tories' Railways Bill in 1993, he insisted, "I have no hang-ups about privatisation," pointing out that he had "supported the privatisation of British Transport's hotels".
	www.guardian.co.uk /print/0,3858,4230374-103684,00.html (483 words)

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