>>1236759Look at Northern Ireland Railways and consider how that functions and is profitable while being publically owned with reasonable fares.
My 3 step plan would be as follows:
1. Nationalise all local and commuter services, bringing them under the control of regional transport authorities (think of TfL structure, but with Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle, etc), along with nationalising other transport in those areas bringing about integrated bus, rail, tram and metro services in these regions.
2. Impose standardised fare systems for all long distance rail, but permit Virgin Trains, First Capital Connect, GWR and so on to continue operating until their contracts end, after which absorbing those franchises into publically owned franchises.
3. Revisiting of HS2 with extentions beyond Birmingham to Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. Funding and construction of HS3, replacing the Trans-Penine railway. Upgrading the ECML and WCML to higher speed operations. Investigate HS4 for a Glasgow-Edinburgh line as well as additional HSX lines for other major regions/cities.
Network Rail is fine. Privitising the infrastructure will only make things worse for TOCs, since then the franchises will just monopolise the lines and they could introduce issues, like incompatible rail systems.
Last point, an alternative to nationalising local/commuter rail could be the introduction of transport authorities like in Germany. All transport is integrated within these areas, regardless if they are publically or privately owned.
