Does the Marches need a thunderbird locomotive

[Saltleyman]

BR did "railway" TOC's and FOC's do "profit"

And by judging at the last 20 years or so they aren't very good at "Railway" which is the whole idea of the franchise !

But should the profit be at taxpayers expense ?

 

[DarloRich]

No doubt this answer has been suggested ! but here goes it is purely the consequences of privatization nothing else !
As they say" the chickens are coming home to roost" !
If the Railway was still "State owned"( publicly owned) none of this nonsense would even be mentioned!
Just shows how fickle and stupid the general public are!
Just look at the rest of Europe,how many "State " railways have been given to the "Money Grabbers",the Brits. will stand for anything,bunch of headless chickens !
At the end of the day the phrase "who pays" would be irrelevant,if it was required it would be provided

but it isn't irrelevant - the same argument about cost would simply be going on in BR behind the scenes between "Intercity" "Regional" "Railfreight" and "Freightliner"

Now i would hope in a unified railway agreeing it might be easier and the methods of payment swifter but who pays would still be important as it has to come out of someones budget and there still has to be a mechanism for refunding the "owner" those monies by the "guilty" party.