Topic: Ice cap thaw may awaken Icelandic volcanoes

[Simon]

Yes, I've often wondered why train travel is so much more expensive than virtually any other. 

[Clive]

It's not like that in France.  Probably not in the rest of Europe either but I think Sam is the expert on rail travel in Europe! 

[Rik]

It's crazy. If they want to get us out of our cars and off the planes, they need to address train fares.

[Clive]

Something I have always said Rik! 

[Rik]

Me too. No-one ever listens though, do they?

[sam]

It's not like that in France.  Probably not in the rest of Europe either but I think Sam is the expert on rail travel in Europe! 

yeah its not - then again I found Italy fairly pricey for the trains... but the rest seemed very reasonable... and cheaper for the same distance than the UK. The problem we have is that the system is so fragmented now its easy for the companies to mess up the prices.

Also the train to Glasgow was probably one of Virgin's cash cows...

[Sandra]

The best railways in europe are in France and Germany and are part nationalised and subsidised by the state.
As far as I know there is only one party in the UK that wants to renationalise the utilities, so I presume that would include the railways, for the benefit of the British people and not just for big companies to make vast profits at the publics expense.
If they got in power then our railways could compete to once again be the amongst the best in the world 

[Sandra]

By a strange coincidence I have just read this on the BNP website :

http://bnp.org.uk/2010/04/the-madness-of-torylabour-privatisation-german-state-about-to-buy-arriva-trains-and-busses-in-britain/

German state-owned Deutsche Bahn is about to buy the Arriva train and bus network in Britain, proving the Tory/Labour privatisation policy to be a shocking hoax which has seen Britain’s infrastructure pass into foreign ownership.

Deutsche Bahn is set to buy Arriva for about £1.6 billion within the next two weeks, according to news reports.

Arriva runs 20 percent of London’s buses and the Cross-Country and Wales rail franchises. According to reports, Deutsche Bahn has been in detailed talks with Arriva since making an approach last month.

Deutsche Bahn has the backing of the German government in its takeover bid which gave it an advantage over the French state-controlled SNCF railway network, which was also attempting to buy Arriva.

The French government refused to back the SNCF bid, as now the path is open for the German state to buy up yet more of Britain’s infrastructure.

Deutsche Bahn was created in 1994 through a merger of the rail arms of west and east Germany. It is one of the largest transport groups in the world, and the biggest railway operator and infrastructure owner in Europe.

The move gives lie to the underlying rationale for privatisation in the first place, namely that the British state could not run a transport network efficiently.

It seems, under the Tory privatisation plan (which was endorsed and carried through by Labour) that it is “wrong” for the British state to own our railway network, but it is perfectly acceptable for the German state to own it.

As I thought, the article goes on to say :

“The BNP would re-nationalise the railways,” Mr Prince told a local newspaper. “All profits will be re-invested and the days of putting passengers’ safety at risk due to shareholders’ returns would be a thing of the past.

A so called right wing party that has real left wing socialist policies, more like old labour was than new labour is now  

[sam]

I'd definitely argue that the UK's railways are still amongst the best in the world.

Also with Arriva they just get a franchise that surely has to be renewed.

[Simon]

It has to be said, the Germans do tend to do things more efficiently, so perhaps it's not such a bad thing for Arriva?

[sam]

indeed

[Sandra]

Unfortunately we could end up in the same situation with our trains as we are in with our energy suppliers, once they are owned and controlled by foreign governments. France wouldnt allow EDF, ( I think thats the majority state owned French energy company), to increase their charges to the French by more than 5% while having no such qualms about increasing them to us by 50% a couple of years back 

[Clive]

I dumped EDF last year after they put their charges up when all the others were decreasing them! 

[sam]

EDF are big world wide not just in France / UK.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lectricit%C3%A9_de_France#Main_partners

EDF are on the market so I doubt the Frence Government play a large part in them.

[Sandra]

I think theyre a majority shareholder, I know they dictated a maximum price increase for french consumers. It was widely reported at the time.