The 33% off trains promise speaks to a broader issue with Labour's renationalisation plans, which we've been banging on about for ages. Namely, once you've taken the things into public ownership, how do you actually operate them?
The contention that it is cost-neutral because you've acquired an asset that generates profits to cover the borrowing relies on the fact that these companies would be run in much the same way. But Labour have been very clear that they wouldn't be.
In the case of today's rail promise, apparently the money would come from the roads repair fund - never mind that way more people use roads, and that this is a regressive subsidy because train users tend to be richer
(In fact, a weirdly large number of Labour's promises are massively regressive, eg tuition fees, which is basically handing more free money to middle-class taxpayers and future taxpayers.)
But more generally, Labour are simultaneously promising (on rail, energy, broadband etc) to massively increase investment, massively increase stuff salaries, massively increase union power and massively cut costs for consumers - while somehow covering the borrowing costs too
And this also ignores the fact that productivity increases in most of these sectors have been substantially higher in private than public hands - in other words, you aren't going to be able to cover much of this via efficiency gains
It's the economics of the loaves and the fishes. Or, for South Park fans, the Underpants Gnomes:
1. Renationalise everything
2. ?????
3. It's all perfect!
1. Renationalise everything
2. ?????
3. It's all perfect!
Oh, one quick follow-up point. The obvious consequence of slashing the price of train travel is more people use trains. But our trains are already at capacity - we use our track and stock more efficiently than pretty much anywhere in Europe, esp in the commuter zones.
So you'll also need to budget for a massive investment in capacity expansion - further squeezing your ability to cut costs for consumers without even more borrowing/direct subsidy, paid for by the taxpayer.
