Privatised rail line is a turn-off for passengers
Well, duh. Everyone should know by now that privatisation isn’t about improving the service to the public.
It’s about taking funds away from the State and creating a profit for private investors.
No doubt Richard Branson is 100 per cent delighted with the East Coast Main Line.
Passenger satisfaction levels with the East Coast Main Line rail service have plummeted since the Government privatised the line, industry statistics show.
The service between King’s Cross, Yorkshire, and the North East had been run directly by the Department for Transport between 2009 and early 2015 – making it one of the few publicly-owned railways in the UK.
During its being run by the DfT the route returned hundreds of millions of pounds in surplus to the taxpayer and in its passenger survey as a last publicly-owned line achieved the highest passenger satisfaction level of any long-distance franchise – 94 per cent.
The Government has however since returned the line to the private sector, with Virgin Trains East Coast taking over management on 1 March 2015.
In its first National Rail Passenger Survey period back in the private sector, satisfaction with the line has fallen to 89 per cent, bringing it more in line with the UK’s other privatised long-distance railway lines.
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
The Tories only want industries from which they can make loadsa money. Regardless of how well it serves the public, if they can’t make money from it then they aren’t interested.
Privatisation = Looting. Enough said.
yes inefficiency, and poor service standards subsidised by taxpayers. = Privatisation of anything which was provided previously by the public sector.
Surprise, surprise. Branson bringing inefficiency despair and despondency laced with his own brand of personal greed to the travelling public again. But everybody said it would happen and the tories took no notice, because they don’t give a fig. Privatisation = rip off. The tories don’t even bother to make excuses these days.