Economy Labour is Renationalising British Rail, and considering Renationalising Buses

[KAZSoliloquy]

fucking lol @ the majority of these idiots thinking private banking is the way to go

 

[650lb Sumo]

That‘s an extremely complex topic on which I have no opinion. What I‘ll say though is that French SNCF and German Deutsche Bahn are both held by the state. The SNCF works pretty well and the DB is a catastrophy. I would need to dig deeper into it but I think that the SNCF is a company ruled by public law while the DB is a corporation held by the state. In the end I am not sure that private/public is the defining factor but rather, the country‘s track record in the management of public infrastructure. France is world class, while Germany is pretty meh in that regard.

DB owns Arriva, which operates buses, coaches, trains, trams and waterbuses in 10 European countries. They run a lot of the buses in the UK, and

Chiltern
Cross Country
Grand Central, and
London Overground trains.

They also have a big rolling stock maintenance company in the UK: Arriva Train Care. Their north of England train contract was terminated early however due to poor performance, and Northern Trains were taken over by the Government.

The contract termination was embarrassing, but overall DB are one of the major players in UK public transport and seem to be competent.

The French Government is the majority owner of the UK's operating nuclear power stations, so I hope they're competent too.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

DB owns Arriva, which operates buses, coaches, trains, trams and waterbuses in 10 European countries. They run a lot of the buses in the UK, and

Chiltern
Cross Country
Grand Central, and
London Overground trains.

They also have a big rolling stock maintenance company in the UK: Arriva Train Care. Their north of England train contract was terminated early however due to poor performance, and Northern Trains were taken over by the Government.

The contract termination was embarrassing, but overall DB are one of the major players in UK public transport and seem to be competent.

The French Government is the majority owner of the UK's operating nuclear power stations, so I hope they're competent too.

That s interesting but living in Germany I can tell you that DB is a symbol of inefficiency and frustration in the eyes of the population and media. I really think these topics are country dependant moreso than public/private/brand dependant.

So while DB is a cluster fuck in its home market, they may have performed adequate acquisitions in the UK which are performing well and are branded DB. I can‘t imagine that there is anything German in the DB run UK infrastructure.

 

[650lb Sumo]

Royal Mail takeover by Czech billionaire approved

The EP Group's purchase of the Royal Mail's parent company has been approved by the government.

www.bbc.co.uk

The sale of Royal Mail's parent company to a Czech billionaire has been approved by the government.

The £3.6bn takeover by Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group has been given the go-ahead after agreeing 'legally binding' undertakings.

Kretinsky

The government will retain a so-called 'golden share' that will require it to approve any major changes to Royal Mail's ownership, HQ location and tax residency.

EP Group will also have to maintain the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service Obligation (USO), which currently means it has to deliver letters six days per week, Monday to Saturday, and parcels Monday to Friday.

Mr Kretinsky told the BBC earlier this year that he would honour the USO - in whatever form it takes - "for as long as I am alive".

Mr Kretinsky had already offered the following guarantees in a bid to secure the deal:

• Not to raid the pension surplus
• Keeping the brand name and Royal Mail's headquarters and tax residency in the UK for the next five years
• Respecting union demands for no compulsory redundancies to take place (until 2025)

In addition to owning 27% of West Ham United football club and 10% of Sainsbury, Mr Kretinsky's companies also own a gas transmission service which still pipes much reduced levels of Russian gas to Europe, paid for and with the consent of the EU.

The takeover was called in for review under national security laws as it is considered vital national infrastructure.