Title: Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways? - BBC News
Headings: Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways?
Would it be realistic to renationalise the railways?
Nationalisation of the railways
Rail services around the world
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Content: There are rules stating that the track and rolling stock must be managed separately - an attempt to allow free competition, although state-owned railways across the continent use holding companies in order to abide by this. A new European Commission strategy - the Fourth Railway package - to be voted on this summer by the European parliament could further pressure member states to open state-owned railways to private competition. None of these hurdles are insurmountable, says Ian Taylor, author of Rebuilding Rail, a 2012 report for the trade unions. " The biggest obstacle to renationalising the railways is the prevailing dogma - the assumption that marketisation and competition must be best." So what do the political parties say? Labour's official policy is to allow the state to bid for franchises. But in recent weeks new shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher has gone further. "The public sector will be running sections of our rail network as soon as we can do that," he told the New Statesman recently. He ruled out a return to British Rail but said a Labour government would put "the whole franchising system as it stands today in the bin". image copyright
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The Conservatives are against nationalising the network.