Title: Why not... nationalise the railways? - BBC News
Headings: Why not... nationalise the railways?
Why not... nationalise the railways?
The background
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Content: Why not... nationalise the railways? - BBC News
Why not... nationalise the railways? Published
11 July 2013
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A look at eye-catching policy ideas that are often talked about but never seem to feature in UK general election campaigns. The background
Britain's railways were nationalised by Labour in 1948 and returned to private hands by John Major's Conservative government in 1993. Labour was initially committed to renationalisation but the policy was dropped when Tony Blair came to power in 1997. Track, signalling and stations were taken out of private hands, and put into a not-for-profit company, Network Rail, after the collapse of Railtrack in 2002. Labour has yet to reveal its transport policies for the next general election, but they are not thought likely to feature rail nationalisation. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has launched a private members' bill to allow the train companies to "fall back" into public ownership, which is supported by a number of Labour backbenchers and Plaid Cymru MPs. The train companies insist the debate about nationalisation is solely driven by the unions. In 1993, Britain's railway was broken into pieces and handed, mostly as local monopolies, to profit-taking companies.