Nail and head. Having made such a noise over so many years about those profiteering evil private sector operators while benefitting from a very significant uplift in wage rates over the last couple of decades of privatisation, the reality of achieving renationalisation for the Unions is going to hit hard. Much tighter treasury / Government financial control and now much of the industry is again a public sector worker, you'll get treated like every other public sector worker. In reality I have very little sympathy. I think unions can be a real force for good, but for too many years the rail unions have had the whip hand demanding this or that and ultimately, renationalisation. Well, you have it now. Careful what you wish for is all I say.
Post pandemic and patronage through the floor, of course some serious questions are going to be asked about the number of services. And to the cries from the Unions about their hard pressed members going above and beyond on the front line. Come on. i took a few trains during the pandemic and none had more than a handful of passengers. Not exactly the NHS levels of stress. Managing the boredom threshold was probably the peak of it.
We are in for a rough time but this time and as a taxpayer i'm inclined to side with Government and while the opportunity is there they need to make the hard choices and come out the other side with a much more efficient railway. People have choices and for the next 18 months my guess is not using the train really isn't a hard one to make.
