Panorama - British Rail - The Ultimate Sell Off (1989) [VHS]

[@m.moolhuysen5456]

One of the things that made privatisation awful, was that the creation of the incompetent Railtrack company as infrastructure owner lead directly to mismanaging a severe rail defect, causing the large Hatfield rail crash.

[@chloejones1548]

Yes and not just Hatfield, but several other serious crashes as well

[@blackandwhiterag1117]

Incompetence is the name of the game - a lack of knowledge in the people trying to run the railway. Compare the Hatfield crash with the horrendous triple collision at Harrow in 1952, when trains were running through again after only three days. Although nationalised at the time the railways were being run by the men of the previous private companies with knowledge and expertise built up over 100 years of tradition. All of that has disappeared.

[@ajs41]

When Panorama wasn't a crappy 25 minute dumbed-down programme.

[@daveytn]

I love how in 1989 they thought privatising rail would fix everything, saying trains were filthy and late and all this... 2022 and whats changed lol

[@robtyman4281]

...the trains may be newer, but yes in alot of cases, 33 years later they're still late - and filthy. So much for progress!

[@steamfandan9682]

They have ramped up the fares but not the comfort

[@gdwnet]

15:00 and 18:00 Jimmy Knapp and John prescott were both spot on.

[@shanegahan4341]

I joined in 88..left in 2000...I was at a union meeting and Jimmy knapp was there...it was great for a few years...then privatisation came around...It ruined the railway and the craic..never the same.

[@brianfearn4246]

Fabulous watch. Smoking in meetings and no mobile phones

[@ChangesOneTim]

A sobering reminder of how responsive and, yes, financially efficient BR was compared to the Eton Mess that followed. It was because BR proved that it could be trusted to control costs that the Thatcher (of all) governments gave the go-ahead to so much capital investment during the 1980s. All the talk in 1989 was of vertically-integrated (track and train) privatisation by regions/ routes. John Major favoured that version when he came to power, only famously to be shouted down by the right wing who wanted the franchising model with as many broken pieces as possible to make it impossible for Labour to reverse it. How different things might have turned out if Major had got his way....

[@Tuberuser187]

Been on a bit of binge of old British Railways documentaries, many before my birth. After WW2 the mess the Railway network was in was somewhat justified I think, it had been run into the ground like most things in the name of sustaining the war efforts but since? Well from the 1950s on it seems that any effort to improve it have seemed Sisyphean, as fast as it was improved it was neglected or mismanaged to the same degree. Twenty Five years on from this documentary its still an omnishambles as it was for the previous two decades and a half, I suspect it will still be in this state in another 25 if the collapse of HS2 is anything to go by. An eternal purgatory for the people who have to rely on it.

[@matthewshave7491]

I wonder if that man who said BR would be better if privatisesd is now regretting his choice of words... Probably been eating some humble pie for the past 30 or so years!😅

[@MannyAntipov]

Probably the same guy who is a certain “Bungle” on KZbin!

[@ohheyitskevinc]

Sadly, they knew how it would all end up. It was all done for a reason. Profit. At the expense of tax payers who were paying for public infrastructure the govt purposely ran into the ground.

[@TrenyCwm]

Love the Valenta soundtrack at Newcastle

[@christopherhulse8385]

As a serving railwayman of 35+ years, i remember this and the railway is going full circle once again, in 2023 back to government ownership, that tells you privatisation has been a failure.

[@underwaterdick]

30 years of it makes it a failure? Or did covid, which killed many industries entirely mean privatisation wasn't viable. Because in truth, passengers hated BR, and did much better out of privatisation for many years. Yes, modern greed has meant the original franchise model needed changing, and pre covid, this was looking like the future, changed franchising. Now, it's back to national ownership. Let's hope this new start is more about the customers than BR ever was!

[@fndjfgsdk]

With a nationalised infrastructure company, franchises that are so overprescribed and price caps on tickets, how can you claim that the last 15 years has been anything other than a nationalised railway in all but name? Nationalisation, or more importantly, government dictation over the railways is what's causing passenger satisfaction to decline. If the passengers were actually the customers, as opposed to the government, the rail system would be significantly improved. There's a reason that the open access operators continuously score the highest on passenger satisfaction.

[@gdwnet]

@@underwaterdick _and did much better out of privatisation for many years._ We did? How? As a commuter for 27 years I can safely say that all privatisation brought was higher fares and a piss poor service. Tell me something, how did privatisation help? All it helped was the profits of the TOC. It wasn't like I could pick another rail company as I only have the one so there was no competition.

[@gadgetboy1980]

The funny thing is everyone looks at the British Railway days through rose tinted glasses. Was it really any better than today and privatisation? Let's all remember the "good old days" of 21% rise in fares as mentioned in the documentary! The people who champion BR seem to say they'd rather be ripped off by the government than by a private company. Let's wait for the next angry mob shouting down GBR when that takes effect next year. Such fun.....

[@31144]

Should never have been privatised, the minute profit overtakes the customers requirements it's a downward spiral, also ask yourself what happened to all the money for wages etc once it was privatised ? The tens of thousands of BR employee's that suddenly didn't get their wages from central government ?

[@locomotionlotion779]

What about freight? It’s more successful now that it has competition, than it’s ever been. Freight was all British Rail, but when people claim that “the railway” shouldn’t have ever been privatised, those people just put hundreds of thousands more lorries on the road. Sectorisation within British Rail, before privatisation, proved that freight doesn’t work as well, without competition.

[@31144]

@@locomotionlotion779 What about freight ? It's worse than ever 🤣🤣, don't talk bollocks about "Competition" as it doesn't exist or work once everyone gets on the same boat, unbelievable ...

[@locomotionlotion779]

@@31144 I mean… Of course I must be another armchair enthusiast, I only work in the industry. I only speak to the contracts managers that are finding ways to undercut or provide a better offer than the competition, for potential customers to consider. It’s only making more money now, than it ever has before. Tens of millions per year in one company’s case, compared to nothing or a loss in BR days, which is quite something considering coal disappeared almost overnight about 10 years ago. But hey, what the hell do I know?! I was only talking to the contracts managers and a regional manager yesterday about this. I’m only booking on in a few hours to literally drive a freight train, but I must be talking bollocks.

[@nanoic2964]

Same problems in 2022.

[@chriswaring5565]

CECIL ( DIRTY OLD MAN) PARKINSON & GOOD OL JOHN ( 2JAGS ) PRESSCOT 😂