Re-nationalise the railways

The West Coast rail franchise balls up is a remarkable kettle of fish, isn’t it? I remember when the successful tender was announced by the government being surprised at the ferocity of old beardy’s rage, and also astonished at the figures he was quoting. Can this be right, I wondered to myself at the time? The projections made by the First group, and which initially won them the contract, seemed outlandishly optimistic. But then, looking at the detail of the failed Virgin bid, that seemed only slightly less outlandishly optimistic. It seems that all concerned put in bids which were a palpable nonsense, leaving the government civil servants with the simple task of choosing the one which promised the most; the reality behind the figures didn’t really matter. As Christian Wolmar points out today in The Times (£) this was at least partly the consequence of the botched privatisation. We are subsidising our rail network with ever greater sums of money – much more than when the thing was in state hands – and ticket prices are easily the highest Europe. Re-nationalise!