Forget British Rail, train services are now an utter joke

DO you remember those days when British Rail was the country’s favourite joke?

No 1970’s comedy sketch was complete without poking fun at the delays, the overcrowding and the inedible sandwiches.

And then along came dreary John Major and his privatisation plans. (Even Maggie at the height of her anti-nationalisation mania left the railways alone).

And ever since, the joke hasn’t been on British Rail – it’s been on British passengers.

For we may have moaned at the irritations of BR, but they were nothing compared with the complete and utter contempt with which too many rail companies now treat their customers.

Oh, while making healthy profits. And all eased along with a dollop of taxpayer-funded subsidies. It truly is a joke. And we are the butt of it.

Now the country’s policy has come entirely off the rails.

More than 12,000 train journeys have been disrupted since the introduction of new timetables on May 20.

Passengers on Northern Rail have had their lives and work disrupted on a monstrous scale. Some have faced disciplinary action for lateness at work, others have been repeatedly late home to collect children, others are being forced to move home to end their commuting hell.

In recent years, there’s been enough hot air spoken about a Northern Powerhouse to fuel one. But the latest Northern Rail debacle tells us just how much this government really cares about the idea – toss all.

For rich Tory MPs from leafy constituencies have worked themselves into a fury about planes flying from Heathrow, but not given a fig about trains trundling through Huddersfield. Otherwise Transport Secretary Chris Grayling would have acted when he was first warned about the looming timetable chaos. Or taken responsibility for something, anything. Rather than blaming the whole debacle on anyone else in sight.

Elsewhere across Europe, we see state-backed companies running clean, punctual and reasonably priced services. They’re so good at it they’ve ended up running a load of ours too – and making great profits.

It’s time to bring our railways home and into state control.

It’s time to end this pathetic privatisation joke.

While I abhor the act of “spy cops” who infiltrated activists’ lives in the past, the Lush store campaign is clearly hysterical and overlooks the good work d one by most cops each day keeping us safe. Also, if there’s a real crime here, isn’t it the hideous pong that constantly seeps out of Lush’s stores into shopping centres of Britain? It’s time to bring railways into state control