West Coast Franchise Fiasco

[sasguru]

There is absolutely nothing free market about the privatisation of the UK railways.

I agree it is a shambles.

How would you have done it?

[Robinho]

It's not really possible to do well because the thing was turned into a natural monopoly by BR by truncating a lot of duplicate tracks and stations that different companies used to compete on. They should have never been nationalised in the first place.

Ideally you'd let different operators compete on the same route, but i don't think that's at all practical. Operators need to build and own their own tracks but it's not really feasible to create new routes now.

[sasguru]

It's not really possible to do well because the thing was turned into a natural monopoly by BR by truncating a lot of duplicate tracks and stations that different companies used to compete on. .

Evidence and examples for this please?

AFAIK there has only ever been one railway line, between the major cities, because building 2 or 3 lines between say London and Brighton would be a waste of resources don't you think?

[Robinho]

Evidence for this please?

Just look at an old rail map of 1930s britain.

[eek]

Evidence and examples for this please?

AFAIK there has only ever been one railway line, between the major cities, because building 2 or 3 lines between say London and Brighton would be a waste of resources don't you think?

London to Birmingham. Now West Coast and Chiltern Line

[sasguru]

Just look at an old rail map of 1930s britain.

And what evidence will I find there? That lots of unused or unviable lines were closed down?

[sasguru]

London to Birmingham. Now West Coast and Chiltern Line

That's probably a good example. Connecting two of the UK's biggest cities.
Are you saying there are or were two roughly parallel tracks between London and Brum?

[Robinho]

And what evidence will I find there? That lots of unused or unviable lines were closed down?

They were closed because the system was now a monopoly and there was no point having competing branch lines serving one town.

[DodgyAgent]

I've given you the facts. Clever people look at the evidence, idiots stick with slogans and mantras.

The word "arguably" is neither a fact, evidence or an argument

[sasguru]

They were closed because the system was now a monopoly and there was no point having competing branch lines serving one town.

Beeching closed down branch lines which didn't bring in much revenue.
But those lines aren't the important ones.
The ones that matter are e.g. London-Brighton, Brum-London, Heathrow Express etc. - the popular mass used lines.
How do you set up competition with those?