Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• harry worth, Salisbury

  i can remember the non for profit br they never made a profit the staff did not care old warn out trains and dirty trains stations or as one gaurd told me when i complained about a dirty train sir the train are not run for the public they are run for the staff welcome to the new costly welsh b r piad for with increased taxes

• Roshan, Leeds

  This would be better done in conjunction with Arriva Trains Wales in my opinion, so that we can see competition between the two companies. A fiercely competitive passenger rail industry, like the freight rail industry is now, is the best way forward. Companies will force each other to lower prices and improve service. A not-for-profit railway company would threaten the monopoly that is ATW, so they would have to reduce prices. Having the not-for-profit company alone could be a risky move I think.

• James Pritchard, Southampton

  Recent franchise agreements with private companies have stipulated large financial returns to the government. I am happy to stand corrected, but I don't think that this money is ring fenced for re-investment in the railway. Any "not for profit" government entity operating the railways will surely return money to central government in the same way. On that basis, we really must move on from tired remarks about "greedy shareholders draining all the money from the railways" because any government entity could just as easily limit railway investment.
  
  Yes, a private company will seek to make a profit, but that doesn't mean that a government entity would invest more money in the railway. On top of that, private companies do have an incentive to invest efficiently, whilst public entities often have a reputation for wasteful bureaucracy (this may or may not be a fair reputation, but there is generally no smoke without fire).
  
  Rather than blindly sticking with idealised (and often well entrenched) views about privatisation and nationalisation, we should try and take a step back and ask how best the railway can secure investment and future growth. A "not for profit" organisation is likely to be affected by political whim and five year election cycles, which can make long term investment and planning difficult (why bother investing when you know the consequences will be taken by the following government?). A private company can be affected by short term franchises, and related uncertainties (why bother investing if another company will get the credit for the new trains?). On the other hand, a government operated entity may be more likely to value the railways as a necessary public service, funding services which have wider social and economic benefits even if they themselves are not economically viable. Similarly, some private companies (e.g. Chiltern Railways, or First Group with their Great Western HST refurbs) have shown what a bit of innovative investment can do, with the desire to uphold a brand and provide an improved customer experience often providing good results. It is a shame that Arriva have let the side down (Cross Country is equally poor), but maybe the answer is not to throw the baby out with the bath water, but to better manage the expectations all round.

• Lutz, London

  @Ian Slater, Herefordshire
  It is state ownership and interference in teh private sector that is the political dogma, not the other way around.
  

• John Gaughan, Hanover, PA USA

  Excellent. This will enable Wales to have a modern
  railway instead of the profit's going to greedy shareholder's.

• John Whitelegg, Church Stretton

  Tony Pearce is probably right about garages but not about railways. My train company (Arriva Trains Wales) is a monopoly provider so no chance of going round the corner to a rival train company. Their overcrowded trains are a disgrace and they take no action to deal with it, they run away with an annual £150 million subsidy and take no notice of anything we ask for. Platform 1 at Church Stretton is flooded every time it rains and after 2 years of asking for this to be sorted it is still there. I will take my chances with a not-for-profit operation.

• KEN OLDFIELD, STONE, STAFFORDSHIRE.

  Of course no body would expect any of that Tony, but they would expect the road that they use to get to their garage to be run as "not for profit" They would expect the infrastructure that allows you to deliver your car to the "ever smiling, ever obliging & efficient garage proprietor keen to keep your business" to be run as "not for profit" The garage would know that you could use another road that is run "not for profit" to use another garage that is reliant on a road to it that is run "not for profit" if not happy with the first garage. Same as you would reasonably expect someone to use a road run "not for profit" to carry on with the daily routine of life, the railway is part & parcel of that infrastructure that you use daily like us all & like the rest of that infrastructure it should be expected to be run on a "not for profit" basis.The same as the rest of the infrastructure, we should not single out the railways as being any different to rest of it that we use to get about to the "organisations" that need to make a profit to survive. you cannot have one rule for one highway covered in Tarmac & another rule for a highway that consists of rails and sleepers.

• andrew blurton, Stafford

  Would the car industry be prepared to operate & design a fulltime 24hour technician labour workforce & service operation for all their own service management & also creating the same service techniques we are all now seeing in the rail network with better marketing techniques & better service operations operating where they cannot stop taking shortcuts repairing all vehicles on a main road everyday like the rail network doing at night time & during the night & with no night shift operating at all in any car workshop with no qualified engineer around the UK & is this becoming a dangerous situation nowadays!

• Ian Slater, Herefordshire

  Why not? What about Welsh Water, who deliver my water and are mentioned here, and all of the other public-orientated services, not to mention those that that have destroyed by political dogma such as BR in its later days, or the GPO and the Gas Boards?

• Garth Ponsonby, Dunkeld

  Not true, overall. I would not expect a governmental organisation to be set up to make a profit necessarily. I don't expect the NHS, the library or the fire service to aim to make a profit. There is a legitimate position (that railways should be run as a service) that has existed for many years, and that is what the Welsh Government appears to be reverting to; that position, after all, existed for nearly half of the last century. You can argue one way or the other, but it is a value judgment ultimately, and one much more in line with the majority opinion in Wales (and Scotland), I suspect.

• Slip Digby, Manchester

  Tony, can you explain how the Glas Cymru model appears to work well for water, and yet wouldn't for rail?

• Dan Conquer, Woking

  The article doesn't mention that Welsh trains are effectively already nationalised: But by the German government-owned DB, rather than our own! The state is still the only player with both the capital and oversight to oversee the industry as a whole and take the big decisions so it's time this miserable discredited economic dogma of privatisation was shunted into the sidings once and for all, with every surplus penny reinvested and fares kept as low as possible.

• Lutz, London

  An alternate headline might be - "Welsh Government finances follow in Alice's footsteps down the rabbit hole".

• Chris, Longstock

  Would a 'not for profit' rail company be as good as or even better than, for example, Connex or East Coast?

• Tony Pearce, Reading

  Would you expect your local Garge that services your Car and does the MOT to be run as a 'not-for-profit' operation. Would you expect that they would go out of their way to finish repairing your Car at 6pm when it wasn't finished - or say 'thats it Mate I finish at 6'? Would you expect them to go the extra mile to keep your Business - and not charge for the very small jobs ? Would you expect them not to treat you politely at every occassion knowing that you can go around the corner to a rival Garage next time ? Same with the Railways and any organisation.