Thread by @FisherAndrew79

This is quite a misleading headline.

There is little that is unified about the government's new rail plan, and it falls far short of an integrated public system ... 🧵
bbc.co.uk/news/business-…

First, this is not public ownership.

The rail franchises will become concessions, but remain in private hands: the likes of Virgin, Arriva, Stagecoach et al will continue to extract profit from running services that charge some of the highest fares in Europe 2/n

During the pandemic the Government scrapped franchising to give fixed support to train firms - a £3.5bn bailout

Depending on the detail of new concessions, this system could allow for MORE profits to be made by the private companies that will still be running rail services 3/n

On the plus side, this does mean greater co-ordination of the railways:
*More control over timetables
*More control over ticketing and prices – though by no means inevitable that fares will come down overall. We currently pay the highest fares in Europe:

As the @TSSAunion says, the Great British Railways remain privatised - and this restructuring is a pale imitation of the plan put forward in 2019 by @UKLabour and then shadow Transport Secretary @AndyMcDonaldMP

https://twitter.com/TSSAunion/status/1395294857384628224?s=20