Top work as usual guys. At long last the railways have some hope, i pray Labour get this plan implemented. Its about time the railways were championed!

Delighted to hear this, it has made today a very good day indeed

Great special guys, keep it going 👍

You guys are great. Don't ever stop. And love having good news to report!!

Superb. Vote Railways!

Well done guys - answered a lot of questions

Excellent initial analysis. The Government’s “pointless” comment in response to Labour’s Plan was itself pointless.

10/10 👏👏👏👏

I'll believe it when I see it!

What is your often overlooked is that much of the industry is already in the public sector, including Network Rail and a number of train operators. The private sector, such as signalling suppliers, have always been key to supporting the rail industry, and will continue to be so.

10/10 for your first analysis of the plan - let's hope the government in waiting becomes the government and delivers it

Excellent! Informative and interesting!

Somebody who can give you the facts without the gibberish and an honest opinion, thanks guys, great as ever

Great pod cast thank you

Superb informed analysis from both of you. Very many thanks.

Is it just me or was the timing of this announcement perfect so that it would just miss your normal weekly podcast? 😉 Your podcast might be something politicians are beginning to fear! Good work!

Nigel and Richard, many thanks for your considered and valued commentary on Labour's announcement. I shall now be able to sort the wheat from the chaff when I read and hear the various comments and opinions in the press and on the news. Keep up the good work! Cheers, Rob

Great show chaps - well done. And don't I remember comments in an early episode when it was mentioned that rail matters never feature in a general election - well maybe this just might!

Excellent analysis...at last some common sense thinking on what needs to be done. Keep up the good work🙂

Good timely analysis. Don't think I've ever seen Richard so happy! Clearly some green signals ideas in these plans but as always success will depend on the implementation and ability to energise the industry. Let's hope it works out as everyone believes.

She won't have written this herself. Credit is due to others who were in the room, but to her for choosing the right people.

I thought HS2 would be an important part of the future of railways.

Thank you for this useful summary.

An excellent and considered report, thank you gents. Hopefully it will also help those who might feel glittery about the prospect of nationalisation .

Really informative!

Over the last few months, I think that this podcast may have made a massive contribution to the future of our Railways. It’s embodied in this new policy from Labour……it’s like they’ve been listening!

Thanks

I mentioned the other week about reading Ian Dunt's book, "How Westminster Works . . . and Why It Doesn't". One of the parts was when Labour were last in power they had teams committed to doing something and those teams were not to be distracted by the day to day [firefighting etc]. All this is, is bringing back something the Government has done so in the past and which the current Party in Government as undone. I would recommend that everyone reads this book regardless of your political leanings.

Fares should be set at uniform cost per mile for whatever that may be and wherever you happen to be going. And then for different options of ticket, going back to BR days we had day returns, weekend returns monthly returns and standard returns and singles. And I believe this gives the right simplicity. And this should be the same whether buying from the station or online. Something would have to be sorted for alternative routes so these were not penalised. But complicated fare structures and not knowing what fare is going to be charged puts me off going by rail. And doing what I suggest would put the sponteneity back to rail travel, meaning I could decide when I wake up it would be a nice day to get the train to Oxford or York or the Heart of Wales. With the knowledge the fare would be reasonable and the journey stress free and not having to worry that my ticket might not be valid on any particular service

Surely the most important need is to improve the passenger-railway interface? Will it?

It sounds really promising. I do think however, not including the ROSCOS is a bad idea but I'm probably being ideological there

Let's give it a chance. Rail needs to improve radically on cost, reliability and comfort/usability, so let's see if government running it from end-to-end as an integrated entity is the answer. The question is whether the politicians can keep their noses out...

Thanks for the special Nigel and Richard. There's a lot to like about this plan but one issue surely has to be that the current TOCs will stop investing, innovating, caring, etc. from here up to their final contract day which could be up to five years away (or whatever the longest outstanding contract currently is). Another risk for this project could be the Tories, believing that they will lose the next election, suddenly handing out new seven year contracts to all the existing TOCs in order to take them over a whole parliament when they might hope to get back into power?

Labour and tory have done FA for 100 years since the end of WW1 netheir have Invested in roads or railways, water, nuclear infrastructure. Politicians are the problem!

You talked to Huw Merriman? When is this interview coming out?

Not entirely sure LNER are flavour of the month with ASLEF with separate disputes ongoing beyond the pay issue so to say they have good people in charge? Hmm? They may be good people but they need to work within the boundaries of collective bargaining and the currently agreed t&c's and not abuse them at will as is being reported by ASLEF. I may have read the situation wrong but only my take on it as per the media available to me.

Interested to see how this interacts with the devolved governments, I think it's a good plan, but unfortunate that they haven't abolished the ROSCOs.

Roll on the election…. Fast line with green lights all the way….

Theres a want, a need and a urgency to see this work. Very good to see.

I think my biggest fear for these changes is that the "guiding mind" will turn into management by committee and the guiding will waver from pillar to post. One thing some organisations with a single, focused leader have as an advantage over similar groups run by committees is that there really is a guiding mind who, whilst they can seek expert opinions, makes the final decisions, holds people to it, and has the buck stop at them. But we'll see. Whatever it ends up as it probably won't be 1970s BR, 1990's privatisation or 1930s Big Four. I also hope that the point made by the recent interviewee is noted: having multiple year control periods as NR does would mean that, unlike BR, they won't need to go cap in hand to the Treasury every year. A "Five Year Plan" sounds like something from the Soviet Union but in this case it seems to be a good thing.

This to me was a good piece of consensus politics to be fair which is exactly what we need for national infrastructure.

As a fully signed up member of ‘1 company should run a fully interconnected rail network’ club it sounds good until you see who is behind it. Labour has a long and awful past history of lack of attention to detail. Bailing out the banks but the then failing to put any conditions in place, PPF of hospitals but failing to put any controls of lease costs beyond 5 years. Public ownership of key services is smart but non of the political options currently on offer could be trusted to do it properly, they are more interested in Tick-Tok hits

Well we all live in hope the the journey will be worth the cost, I give this 9.5 always leave something to aim for, we shall wait to see, but with interest.

Excellent show as always. We believe that a committee should run the railways not an individual and the committee should be made up of those that know how the railways work from bottom to top. With the emphasis that the rich don't get richer and the poor don't get poorer.

Great episode - but maybe only 9 out of 10, as no mention of: the Climate Crisis which (while it doesn't change any of what you've said about how to improve delivery and get modal transfer) casts a dark shadow over the situation and should be injecting great urgency into the issue; and, linked with that, Integration of rail with bus - after all, there are thousands of possible journeys which are impossible by rail alone (anywhere from Bude, Tenterden, Skelmersdale, Dolgelly, Hawick ... and hundreds of other small/medium-sized towns, plus many suburbs, and swathes of rail-less countryside), and I do think that Labour are missing a big opportunity here to address this issue, which could - at a stroke - increase usage by a significant percentage (and win over a lot of the growing number of voters who have green instincts).

Don’t forget public trust needs to be regained by the likes of Northern, they need to be more open, honest and accountable and that needs to include the dark practices of ROSCOs which need to be brought out into the open.

All for LONDON and City commuters Remember TALK is CHEAP BLAH,BLAH,BLAH If trains ran on hot air they`d be on a winner

I am increasingly impressed with Labour, and if i was a citizen, I would give them a go, and I have never voted Labour.

With the regards to waiting for TOC’s contracts lapse, could we find those that are due to end 2024 or beginning of 2025 voluntary hand these back to the DfT? I didn’t hear anything about TUAG nor accessibility of trains (level boarding) mandatory on manufacurers to ensure they are built to enable level boarding or the mess stations are in with maintenance that disproportionately affects those with disabilities. Whatever the vision may be for Labour it has to be inclusive with teeth to ensure the new hive or directed mind has teeth to force change from the industry, especially on accessibility!

Thanks chaps 🎉

Labour's policy is only pointless if you're coming from a place which has consistently failed to deliver what was promised back in 2019 and now becomes easier for Labour to deliver (IF they get elected of course) as there's less to unwind. What pleases me so far without having read everything published is Labour have listened to the consensus voice of industry - though I'd be even happier if the 'pointless' RDG were to be put into permanent cold store. With a GBR at the helm what IS the RDG's purpose? Secondly, the mealy mouthed dogmatic bleatings from Harper and Merriman betray their true motives of wishing to do nothing of real effect to resolve the problems the Tories themselves have created. They've had more than enough time to put their case in the statute book and singularly failed to get anywhere near doing so despite removing significant time out of the Parliamentary timetable by axing HS2 to Manchester. Their predictably tedious response to Labour's plan betrays the concern Labour not only that they now have a clear plan, but it's already got industry and commentators behind it. Something LH has managed to achieve in one day which the Tories failed to achieve since Harper was put in office. We all know the implementation won't come without hurdles but what this shouts out loudly is belief and confidence in the industry AND its workforce to deliver. This breeds enthusiasm which has been floored by the current administration and in turn this will breed confidence and the industry finding its mojo again. Just need HMT not to drown it all. A damn fine starter for No. ten.