Now You're Looking At Railtrack

[@TrainFan_95]

If only Railtrack had taken its own advice and looked at what the trains travelled on, then the Hatfield crash would never have happened.

[@StuAnderson90]

Potters Bar and Ladbroke Grove wouldn't of happened either..

[@Supersonic8984]

Theres a great film by Ken Loach called The Navigators all about a group of track workers going through the privatisation of BR and the tragic consequences it brings.

[@nightw4tchman]

"Look at what they travel on" Quite clearly railtrack didn't in a few places!

[@StuAnderson90]

When you have employed thousands of Stevie Wonders what do you expect 😂

[@lewis986]

My favourite part is as the music steps up at 0.25 secs and the NSE EMUs at 0.38-42 thundering south from Waterloo I imagine. ...Incredible...!

[@class87fan54]

Ah, Railtrack. A company that were greedy and incompetent with fatal consequences . No wonder they went belly up. The words Ladbroke Grove and Hatfield spring to mind immediately.

[@TheDankEngineer]

SN109 was the cause of that, it turns out relocating the signal was just something they couldn't do without hurting their profit.

[@marcuspotter9720]

That said in Ladbroke Grove Thames Trains not properly training Driver Michael Hodder didn't help. However Railtrack did have a role to play in Ladbroke Grove.

[@souvikrc4499]

@@marcuspotter9720 and apparently, following privatization, the training standards for train drivers were also dramatically loosened.

[@StuAnderson90]

@@marcuspotter9720 Potters Bar was there fault....

[@grassytramtracks]

And Potters Bar. They certainly "look at what they travel on"

[@AcombDave]

I worked in Railtrack's PR department when that ad was made and I still cannot work out why it was made no idea who the target audience was. A waste of money. Nice shots nice music awful company.

[@michaelw9285]

David Potter A leaflet would've been better - 'Anything except the trains', far cheaper!

[@jamesw5138]

I think the ad was an introduction to who to blame with your train didn’t run 😂

[@fatwalletboy2]

Nobody at Railtrack gave a stuff. The adverts were still effectively paid for by.the poor saps who had to travel by train.........made them look caring and fabulous.....blowing their own trumpet and not costing them a penny really.

[@86501freightliner]

was this ever aired on television?!

[@AcombDave]

@@86501freightliner I think it was just a promotional film used at conferences exhibitions etc. Total waste of money. Railtrack was a dreadful company to work for. Top managers were really up themselves.

[@smudger1309]

Railtrack put shareholders money first before safety

[@johnkelly1083]

Welcome to the tories. They've just about gutted the country selling off everything. It's 2022, our rail infrastructure is crumbling and is laughing stock compared to Europe, yet we're paying more and more. Yet another legacy of lady Thatcher.

[@tobysummers471]

someone needs to make a parody of this and change "Now you are looking at railtrack" to "Now you are looking at failure".

[@MrUnbeatable2012]

Excellent, amazing vocals on there. Guess this is where all the money went.

[@tobysummers471]

now they want to rid nr and pass on infrastructure to the tocs. I dont think southern will do anything

[@MrUnbeatable2012]

They are not, they will just work together under one board. NR and TOC will remain separate.

[@BristolBatman]

For an extended version of this video, take a look at 'Railtrack - The Heart of the Railway'. 'Railtrack Great Western - Signalling the Way' may also be of interest.

[@TankEngine75]

Wing Nut Amazing

[@86501freightliner]

Is this the same Railtrack that let a InterCity 225 set derail at 115MPH killing 4 people in 2000?

[@tobysummers471]

yes

[@nevango0690]

yep

[@GreatWestern175]

Yes and ironically it was Hatfield that brought Railtrack down, even though Ladbroke Grove which happened some months prior was much worse and fatal. Hatfield had a significant impact on the national rail network, such as speed restrictions. Freight operator EWS was cancelling up to 400 trains per week as a result, whilst estimates put Freightliner's resultant losses at £1 million per month. The cost to the entire UK economy of the disruption was estimated at £6 million per day. Even to this day Hatfield is pretty much on every railwayman's and boss's dilemma

[@grassytramtracks]

​@@GreatWestern175it was then potters bar which was the true nail in the coffin for them

[@Intercity47GBRail]

Love this ad, reminds me of train spotting when I was younger... :)

[@AugustoJr15]

oh,... fabtastic video... I love trains but I never saw a video like that... excellent video..!:)

[@JimTLonW6]

Surely the creation of Railtrack (for which read let accountants run the railway) must have been one of the most disastrous policies since, er, well the Poll Tax (in fact during the parliamentary debates somebody said rail privatisation would be Poll Tax on wheels). But what's even more amazing is that people were daft enough to buy Railtrack shares! Unless they were counting on getting rid of the trains as soon as possible and building office blocks on those valuable city centre station sites.

[@OwenConcorde]

I wonder what British Rail would be like if it not privatized. There would be Intercity Swallow Pendolinos, Javelins, and SuperExpress trains.

[@TheJononator]

No. BREL wouldn't have been sold to Daimler (adtranz, Bombardier). Swallow would most likely be gone by now and would have been replaced with a modern version the blue grey yellow IC livery. (blame the modern art of retro-ising everything) HST's would have been replaced by now. The IC250 would be in operation on the wcml (or a variation of it). The railways as a whole would be better off.

[@tobysummers471]

The Jononator we would have seen many trains. The network southeast class 168,171, 341,342,371,381,471 A new type of sprinter for rr or Scotrail and the intercity 250 project with class 93 locos and mk5 stock. We would have seen the class 88 an ac version of the class 58. And the class 48. Lots of exciting stuff planned but never came to be

[@BlockedUser420]

at one point in the 90s we did

[@sloeginandsleep1170]

I think it would be even more haphazard than it is now. Love or hate it, every single successive government from 1970's onwards starved BR of any meaningful funds, made them beg to spend their own money, cancelled development cycles, blocked ATP, removed subsidy, berated BR at every opportunity, closed services, discontinued lines, cut costs to the bone. If it had continued in public ownership today, it would be in deep trouble or be shuttered and privatised, just as it is now. We are 11 years into a government that has stripped, pared back, cancelled and destroyed public services since their inception, and dangle the carrot of 'Building Back Better' and investing in the services that they cancelled in the hope of winning continued favour from the electorate.

[@MannyAntipov]

Some thoughts: - Ticketing would still be relatively complex but probably not much higher than inflation levels. - Freight would not be as lucrative. - Open Access Operators would still exist, though a lower benchmark (i.e. Intercity) helps increase competition. - Souring trade union relations means widespread strike action instead of TOC/depot based walkouts. - Engineering work would be more straightforward with fewer/no subcontracting. - No London Overground. - Lower drivers' wages. - Replacement of HSTs and NSE slam door stock much sooner, and DOO being more widespread. - Network SouthEast probably renamed as simply "Network". - More electrification, particularly the whole MML and GWML albeit rather cheaply (see our world's ECML disruptions every time strong winds blow the wires down). - New rolling stock (which would come from overseas manufacturers but less diverse) financed or leased via ROSCOs and older rolling stock easier to cascade across British Rail. - More reliance on non-revenue income, such as leasing spaces to private catering firms, or selling off more land for redevelopment.

[@brchtr002]

@X1rules1 The problems start when you privatise track maintenance and management, because a company that has shareholders to satisfy has other priorities than passenger safety. Although I have to add that safety hasn't been up to good standards during the days of BR either, resulting in many deadly accidents,Clapham Junction crash for instance. Now, Sweden's Railways, as far as I know, are far from as old and extensive as Britain's railnetwork, for that reason I think it's tricky to compare them

[@JimTLonW6]

@JimTLonW6 The quote is from Robert Adley MP, Chairman of the House of Commons Transport Committee.

[@samverve]

Now Network Rail!

[@Clacatoo]

Nice vid mate, some great camera shot!!! 5*

[@joeyed96]

I'd Rather Look At The Trains Rather Than Around, Under And Over It

[@ejcmoorhouse]

I looked at the rails and wires and the stations etc. but all I saw was Network Rail!!?!

[@lewis986]

@Trainmaster189 No, it wasn't. And and many people agree it should come back - look up bring back british rail on fb Railtrack was re-nationalized (in all but name) in 2001 when Railtrack collapsed owing to its debt...it is now called Network Rail and is owned by the Government.

[@lewisclark1122]

Pfft. Railtrack was most efficient at moving money away from maintenance budgets and into the pockets of major shareholders. Such a shambles, that even New Labour felt compelled to de-privatise them (not the same thing as re-nationalising).

[@lewis986]

This is incredible! Although some of the shots here are taken directly from British Rail's Concerto Ad in 1989...this remains very respectable marketing. Anyone have any idea on the name of this music?

[@PottersVideos2]

Too bad that Railtrack didn't take getting track maintenance done half as seriously!

[@emt43043]

So if we don’t need to look at trains what do we look a the running gear and stuff then

[@Frserthegreenengine]

Nice shots and music, a lot of effort put into this advert by Railtrack. Shame they didn't any of that same effort into their job, looking after the tracks.

[@Doomsday2060]

Network rail - A fat controller operating a set of 100 year old semaphore signals. 5* FAVED

[@theredraven]

@hstscotsman Can't blame them can you though? Privatisation of BT, BG, Steel etc all worked really well (considering they'd become useless in the 1970s). John Major probably thought the formula would work for railways too.

[@GeorgeUKCFC]

Major actually wanted the trains and track owned by the companies, a la the big four of the 1920s and 1930s.

[@ejcmoorhouse]

there is more to than that Network Rail replaced Railtrack when they went bust. But apart that yh they are the same.

[@theredraven]

@hstscotsman The railways now get more government money than they did before. If anything, the government should take its hands off and let them fend for themselves like everyone else.

[@locosandlogos]

How can you look at British Rails Concerto and say shots taken directly from that into Railtracks? Most of the BR ad was filmed from a helicopter... most of Railtracks was filmed from static cameras or on trains with just a handful of aerials. Both good - but BR's wins my vote. Both music scores great too - but again BR's is classic - Railtrack's dates more to it's time. Production values are better on BR's too - much tighter editing and use of depth of field. And BR's packs more into less time.

[@MattWindsor91]

Railtrack: ‘DON’T look at the trains’ me: *looks at the lovely sectorised BR liveries* Railtrack: ‘YOU HAD ONE JOB’ me: ‘quite frankly, so did you’

[@icychopstix]

Network Rail was Railtrack, before they changed the name

[@glitch4465]

More like Now Your Looking at Faliure.

[@jamie514]

Weren't they the ones who mis-managed maintenance and repair so badly that the pendolino crashed?

[@james123212]

no the grayrigg derailment happened in 2007 railtrack was liquidated in 2002 with all assets transfered to network rail. however their business practices did cause accidents like hatfield where badly maintained track disintergrated while a intercity train was passing over it and potters bar where a set of points fell apart while a train was going over it

[@davesgcr]

Sums it all up when approved by a Merchant bank ....... HIstory will be the judge I reckon ......and was the infrastructure looked afer ?

[@PottersVideos2]

No it wasn't, just ask the families of the people who died in Hatfield. May they rest in peace.

[@TheDankEngineer]

@@PottersVideos2 forget hatfield, remember ladbroke grove?

[@Red_wine]

Railtrack advertising here like they were the ones who built all of it. Haha

[@stuartwatters3181]

What is the name of the song or how do i get hold of it

[@IC225]

"dont look at the trains"....erm you know i'd rather look at the trains than look at track thats broken or not fixed onto sleepers at all. "look at what they travel on" broken rails, "around 10,000miles of " broken rail. "look at what they travel over" broken bridges, "40,000 BROKEN bridges and viaducts......and railway is in their blood...more like the blood is on the railway. what a laugh i like ripping piss with this ad to freinds. decent ad though if it wernt for the incidents that is.

[@OwenConcorde]

I have another thing to say that British Rail wasn't that bad in the 1990's before it breaks apart. As an American, British Rail is one of my favorite railways in the world and I should say that British Rail should come back so there's no more competition in the nation's railway lines (except for High Speed 1). Does Railtrack still exist in Britain today?

[@TankEngine75]

Owen Concorde Railtrack Doesn't Exist Any More

[@TheDankEngineer]

As a fellow american, I say you should think about why BE was the butt of everyone's jokes

[@TheDankEngineer]

*BR

[@RW-nr6bh]

@@TheDankEngineer It was the but of jokes because it was an easy target and universally known and understood. The current rail operators aren't subject to jokes because they'd take legal action in a way BR never did. Also BR developed some very good trains; the HST and the 225 are still giving good service. They also had the APT ready to go only to have the government pull the plug.

[@johnnyboy3949]

Murderers.

[@jamesw5138]

Damn right!

[@johnkelly1083]

This is what you get when you put safety critical infrastructure into the hands of companies and sub-contractors of sub-contractors that couldn't give a shit about workmanship or safety, just profits for their shareholders.

[@MannyAntipov]

"Look at what they travel on"... cracked rails "Look at what they travel under"... downed wires "Look around the train"... a disaster zone "Imagine what's behind it"... incompetent executives

[@Intransitman]

@hstscotsman In Canada our Tories fucked up Via Rail & trashed all the railway lines on Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.

[@erikgustafson9319]

and now your looking at problems

[@robgingervikingjohnson7031]

Most of them locomotives dmu emu ate no more hsts 91s 86s gone 321s 317s and pacers gone the 158s 150s still going as well as 37s 90s

[@dronespace]

Failtrack

[@pxsrrail2558]

Lol but aye

[@GreatWestern175]

Or now Notwork Fail

[@grassytramtracks]

​@@GreatWestern175 At least Notwork Fail do a bit better at looking at what the trains travel on

[@BristolBatman]

Another commercial with Maggie Boyle vocals: kzbin.info/www/bejne/onfai3Wwo6uVp7c

[@christineramsay1897]

This and the other Maggie Boyle ad were composed by my late husband, Rod Syers.

[@TrainPlaneFan123]

* now you're looking at shit maintenance

[@nostaldec4705]

0:11 The fossil fuel power plant makes this much less enjoyable.