Why the railways are in such a state | James O'Brien - The Whole Show
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 เม.ย. 2024
- This is a catch-up version of James O'Brien's live, daily show on LBC Radio from the 25th of April 2024.
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Thanks James O'Brien for shining a light on this, I had a job in public transportation & workers don't get the attention they deserve.
There is no possible justification for "No fault evictions". The fact that this was ever put into legislation is an absolute disgrace. Nobody told these private landlords to invest in property and the sooner legislation is introduced protecting tenant's rights the better. I hope rent control is on the horizon...
Exactly. If they're not paying the rent or trash the place, that's why _for_ fault eviction exist.
There is one.
Somebody gets a job abroad and rents out their house.
Job ends, they come back and want to move back into THEIR house.
There has to be a point at which they can evict the tenant to do so.. Tenant is not at fault, but the owner has to be able to move back into their own house at some point. Maybe it's at the end of the current tenancy period, but they need to have some way to end the tenancy.
If someone who moves abroad for a 2 year contract is not going to have the ability to move back into their house at the end of the contract, why would they rent the place out at all?
British Railways was one the most underfunded railway systems in the western world..The Tory advocates of privatisation never mention this. Christian Wolmar has stated that despite this underfunding British Railways was actually far more efficiently run than the detractors of public ownership would have you believe…Cause and effect.
They were awful
Same thing happened with water, underfunded for years and so when privatisation came about it looked like an improvement but we can all see how that played out in the long term.
@@pipins3616 Yes - but if they were given as much money as the privatised railways were, would they have been as awful.
@@dotty1774 Right because the money doesn't go back into the system it makes it's way back to those who now own our assets and are usually pumped back into European corporations and shareholders pockets. Same has been happening with the NHS private contractors are bleeding it dry but they blame the NHS.
Thirty years ago we had conductors we had a radio playing on the trains we had coffee and sandwiches we had your friendly platform attendants and toilet attendants and you knew EVERY TICKET you bought went BACK into the country to try and make the service better and help others in our country who needed something from the profits it made Train transport makes Trillions yearly let alone buses
Government sells stuff to their mates for a pound while it is worth a hundred thousands pounds, but sure that pound goes into the public purse. Then when the government buys back, the price goes to a million pounds
Under the lib dems in Aberdeen council, they sold lots of property to a local developer for silly amounts 1.00 10.00 places which were worth lots more. All to go into the portfolio of their mate
My late wife took the kids (4) and (9) to Weston for the day in 1990 when it was still owned by US,from Gloucester,change at Bristol Temple Meads,and on the way back the train from Weston to Temple Meads was late meaning my wife missed the connection back to Gloucester.She explained this to the station master,and HE was able to get my wife on to another train,got it to stop at Cheltenham,and arranged for a taxi to be waiting to get my wife and kids back to our house,at NO CHARGE to ourselves.People can say what they like about a nationalised rail system but that would NEVER have happened under privatisation.
Scottish Rail was nationalised in April 2022 without any hysteria.
Yeah but this is London and our politicians love a bit of hysteria 😂
We need to nationalise the railways, bring the water companies into public control - we need to own the water we consume, limit ownership of any national company to NO more than 35% and only 5% by foreign countries. Then and only then will we make the UK a better country, properous and self sufficient.
Nationalised workers took pride in their asset and fiercely protected it. Some, undoubtably, should be reinstated.
I'm sorry but tenants not paying off someone else's mortgage is not the landlord operating at a loss! As long as the rent covers the maintenance expenses that is a profit and any other stance is delusional on the mere basis of how mathematics works.
don't be so silly, people have to be paid for taking risks, even you
@@tedtedtedtedted How does this contradict my statement in any way?
@@erebusvonmori8050 how are you being paid for risk if your only being compensated for expenses ?
@@tedtedtedtedted The payment is the money greater than expenses. What's hard to understand here?
@@tedtedtedtedted Where's the risk? Buy a house for £X. If no-one rents it, sell it for £X. What we have now is a near risk-free situation where someone with capital, or the ability to borrow, buys a property and gets someone else (without the capital or ability to borrow) to pay for it. The former is wealthier than the latter by definition and gets to walk away with a free property after 25 years or so. While the poorer person (or string of poorer people) who has actually paid for the property walks away with zip. The arguement often made is that they'd lived in the property for 25 years, but this is invalid in the extreme. If they'd have been in a viable position to buy the property themselves, then they'd have lived in it for 25 years plus still have the property. This is as clear an example of the rich getting richer on the backs of the poorer that one can imagine, and no meaningful arguement can claim it not to be parasitic.
I remember Briars privatization and thinking Blair will reverse it. He didn't and Starmer is taking his orders from him. Yet more mess if were not in europe.
Why are we, the Taxpayers, subsidising them? Train companies make huge profits.
And go into Pension pots across the EU!
Read Chomsky on the outsourcing of public services: rarely cheaper.
Hang on they were privatised Sold off. Out of the public coffers. Surely the public purse can’t be still keeping them afloat. I know there’s different subsidiaries. The private companies need to contribute majority of money to run the network? Conservatives at their worst no doubt
It actually costs significantly more to subsidise the private companies than it ever did to operate british rail.
@@Multipew About a 11 billion pound subsidy in 2022/23. That's 1300 pound per taxpayer that year.
@@rayglenister9799on top of what each person pays to actually travel too.
@@Multipewalways did, even pre WWII the private rail companies were heavily subsidised.
I wish someone loved me as much as that caller loves the railways 😢
Nationalized railways - a pleasure to travel on them! Some trains with Individual carriages, breakfast restaurant cars with waiter service, almost always on time!
Yes Sir and all jobs for people.
It is obvious that the infrastructure of a country (i.e. education, health-care, roads, rail, power generation and distribution, water and other key industries such as steel production) cannot and should not be run to make profits for outside agencies. On a short term basis it may seem attractive but will only end in depleted services and increased costs...
All of the issues we are having now with all of these and the housing crisis is directly due to Thatcher and the globalist privatisation project of the neo-con world leaders. It's literally stripped this country bare.
It was the correct move to bail out the banks; this prevented an international catastrophe. However the people who made the reckless decisions that caused the banks to collapse in the first place should have been investigated and penalised to the maximum extent possible...
And all the people who couldn't afford their mortgages which the banks then foreclosed on, they should get their homes back too then, right?
@@sandorclegane3658 That would be lovely, but very difficult to fund and implement in a fair manner. However stopping a financial meltdown the likes of which not seen since 1929 - well draw your own conclusions...
@@alanbarker2279 the only thing in the way of saving people's homes is greed and corruption. How many billions and trillions is doled out in "aid" for foreign wars? It's all a sham, bud, and entirely fabricated.
I believe it was Iceland who prosecuted those involved but then it's a fairer country with women in power.
Add profit to everything and the bureaucracy starts taking care of those trips on trains that are most profitable!
Selling our national assets at prices below their value leads to the privatisation of profits and the socialisation of losses.
I'm late and I bet someone has told him, but "A Town Called Chaos" was a claymation show done by some folks at Aardman. I think it got popular enough that they did a movie.
We don't have to look too far on the far shore to see how State railways can be run.
A burger at Casey Jones was a must on a trip to Glasgow. We didn't have one in Aberdeen
I think Thomas the Tank engine had it right. The Fat controller was a career railway man and yes sometimes he rubbed Thomas and the other trains up the wrong way but you couldnt fault the network and its efficiency..
As well as isinglass (fish bladders) previously used to clear beer, gelatine and chett made from insect wings were used as beer finings. I used to brew beers and only used a teaspoon of "Irish Moss" boiled with the wort whilst boiling.
In 1812 Spencer Percival was assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons, he was the Prime Minister.
I took a train in the UK for the first time 2 weeks ago. My return flight from Dublin to Luton was slightly more expensive than my return train journey from Luton to Wellingborough 😂 I actually thought I'd mistakenly bought the wrong ticket or that there was maybe more than one Wellingborough 😂
Tories would sell their grandmas for a few quid
Here in France 🇫🇷 I can buy a return ticket to Paris (500 miles allez retour) for 62€. Or booked in advance 38€
The Short Answer is Deregulation, Cost Cutting, Privatization & Disrespecting the job Railway workers do.
You used the term "National Infrastructure" quite rightly. I would argue that encompasses Railways, Water, Electricity Gas, Roads and Buses. They should remain in public ownership. In the case of railways, many of our rail franchises are owned by foreign governments! The water companies were sold off debt free, now they are loaded with debt while profits have gone you know where.
A little mentioned problem is that of secretaries of state and ministers being moved from department to department every five minutes. They rarely get a chance to master their briefs. They should be in post for at least the life of their govt, unless they commit some heinous misdemeanor. Then there is the indolent civil service, but that's another story.
I was considering returning to the uk. Until I discovered this channel.
You do know you don't have to watch, don't you?
@@mickreaddin4979 I love the channel. How about I keep watching and don’t move to the UK?
@@AndyWarpolCome on, be fair! Your comment can be read as criticism?
@@mickreaddin4979 in a world of hammers, all you see is nails.
@@AndyWarpolIt's very true, I am naturally cynical. But tbf, you could have been a little more specific. As I said, it can be read from two angles.
Rail Network - It’s been tried to be run at a profit it needs to be run at a loss with the cost being offset by everyone getting to work on time, and feeling happy about being getting on them.
Why is the NHS
Yes. It's that simple. (12:00)
Hilariously, my brother told me this was on the radio and said JOB was perhaps regretting his choice of subject. I quipped that 100 Chris Greens must be phoning up, as we know a complete train nut by that name and he told me all about the sub-thread on all the Chris Greens everyone knows 😆
Nationalised Industry,has always been criticised by the Conservative government’s as it suits their privatisation agenda 😢
You have to realise the public companies, water, rail etc... where run down by lack of investment in part to justify privatising them, hence just before privatisation they were simply unable to function. By 1980, investment in the water sector was just one-third of what it had been in 1970. Thatcher's Conservative government reduced the Water Boards' ability to borrow money for capital projects. THE EU then introduced higher standards, the Water Board could not of course meet these, hence the Conservatives said privatisation was the answer. There was no coincidence to this.
My thoughts too
BURGERS BAR TO COFFEE CAFE TO NEWSPAPER SHOP TO WAITING ROOM & INFORMATION TO TOILETS, Thats how long I been around railway stations 🚉 😀
I’m outing myself as a nerd here but the delay of a digital signal comes from a variety of points - by the time you watch it, it could be up to a minute late due to transcoding and buffering ahead (your computer/TV is “watching ahead” to make sure it knows enough to give you a clear uninterrupted signal)
Thank you for your nerd service!!
James: "Which would you choose between a banker and a politician?" Tough choice, given that one caused the 2008 financial crisis, the other inflicted austerity on us as a result and both have colluded on Jeremy Hunt's "Make The Rich Richer" budgets". Who would you choose between Carney and Rees-Mogg? Why, Carney of course for his description of broken Britain.
Where is Sangita?
Deregulation and low taxes. My guess.
One half right
@martinhumble. Low taxes for which section of society ? That is the question.
That chris green bit was amazing
30:15 I challenge the notion that rails should be able to fund themselves. The roads certainly don’t fund themselves (and even if they did, they’re not taxed proportionate to use)…
I recall that in the 1960's, (USA excluded) that there was no national train service that made a profit. Making profit from running trains, maintaining infrastructure and workforce to run it, is almost impossible unless lines are cut, services and staff reduced and fares regularly increased. The concept of ESSENTIAL SERVICE is relegated to a demanding PROFIT making concern and this 'contradiction' lies at the centre of the problem. Large subsidies, increased every year, are needed to support a complex, money hungry rail system with the dual purpose of keeping it moving and show that 'Privatisation' works.
I have just read that JR, a private rail company in Japan, account for 60% of the passenger market and receive NO subsidies from the Government as it maintains a reasonably profit while providing an efficient SERVICE.
Paused 1h22m in:
The bit that hasn't been mentioned yet is that vulture capitalists can soak up the private landlords that have to sell's stock and now you have the same problems you always have with vulture capitalism.
The reason why Tories want to defend landlords is so that they can do a 2008 bank crash on bricks and mortar. The landlords own a thing we need so they can be seen as 'too big to fail' and that mean they CAN afford to not have a rainy day fund in case they have renters and have to subsidize their stay til they can finish out their contracted rental period, because if the narrative works, they get a bailed out like the banks did.
This is another example of what, austerity for example, is: class warfare. They win by pretending this isn't what is happening so we don't defend ourselves and 30% of us are dumb enough to support them robbing the 70 (+!!)%.
Some of the failed franchises are back in state control managed by the operator of last resort - and successfully.
The thing he nearly did but didnt was joke abt the Irish bloke talking about petrol, he connected the two sterotypically
it's really down to their being so uneconomic, somebody has to pay, the issue is the customer or the taxpayer
Government owed is always better than privately owned.
Useing public transport with chewing gum on the seats cans sll the floors the smell on some of the trains is disgusting
36:41 he looks so bored with this phone in 😅
Chronic lack of investment, maximising profit margins so shareholders can steal money from the public purse. The same applies to water, energy, buses (outside of London of course)
1:27:57 There was a Spitting Image skit of that exact joke.
It might have been Romans that used fish guts to make beer, they had an almost industrial process of creating a condiment/ seasoning called garrum out of fermented fish guts
Love my dutch discounted rail paid for by the uk
Chris “no nonsense” Green
The rent thing - isn't that how council houses worked back in the 1960's? The majority of people were working and if you found yourself out of work and couldn't pay your rent it wasn't too much of a big deal because there was as you say, a big balance earning interest somewhere, which covered these eventualities?
Chris Green 😂
As someone who worked on the railway and being 47yrs old I don't remember British rail but I understood British rail looked after everything trains. Rails signals.
When the rail was privatised the services and the rail and the signals were split. So the rail company I worked for drove the trains but if there was an issue with signaling or rail there attitude was its not our fault its network rails issue
Genuine question... why don't you remember British Rail? I remember it, and i'm in my 30's...
It was ONE network. Buy ONE ticket at a British Rail station and it would take you anywhere. Complexity of Rail today, equates to pricey inefficiency. I can remember a simpler and better SERVICE. Bring it back.
What a fool he thought that this was a discussion on Railways and completely ignored the significance of coincidence and the other caller who also failed in the same way.
Ask the Japan to run out Railways
Me - Mr Sunak speak English me don't understand - mr Sunak no english man he Irish man - he even changed his name. His real name is Stephen Lennon, a fairly Irish name. But he changed it to rishi sunak to sound more like a 'prowpa 'ard fackin geezah'
There was an American TV series on in 1957-58, oft repeated at least into the 1960’s, where the theme song spoke about K C Jones, I thought, which turned out to be Casey Jones. I suspect this is where the name came from for those burger bars. Anyway, these were the lyrics, ask grandad if he remembers, those twenty year olds in the office won’t…
Casey Jones
Steamin' and rollin'
Casey Jones
You never have to guess
When you hear the tootin' of the whistle
It's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express
Well there's Casey Junior and the Red Rock, too
Fireman Wally and the rest of the crew
In a thrilling adventure that's a lot of fun
For when Casey takes the throttle for another run.
Saturday morning kids tv in the late 60s
It's capitalism
You are… mis remembering. Why? Quien sabe.
The reason ANY business fails is 100% down to BAD MANAGEMENT! No one can say that is wrong.
Stupidity. Bad luck. Bad circumstances. Do you think all the hospitality groups that failed during Covid did so because they could have predicted a pandemic? And Wetherspoons did so well because they tossed their employees under a bus at the first signs of trouble. Hardly an endorsement. Many businesses succeed because they get lucky in timing. Most businesses fail, if you look at the odds. So, yes, you are wrong.
The way things are going you will only get kebabs at stations.
Then take your own cheese and tomato sandwiches. Kebabs are decidedly unhealthy anyway.
Thats you that is
Milky milky...
Re nationalising transport is a gift to conservatives cos it will cost billions. The conservative ethos has gone on far too long for renationalising anything 😢
Labour are nationalising the operating companies by waiting for their contracts to expire, so doesn't cost a penny for that.
Sounds German
ONCE LABOUR GET IN AND JAMES IS STILL UNHAPPY WHAT WILL HE DO BECAUSE HE IS SO SOLD ON LABOUR BEING PERFECT IT WILL GIVE HIM GRIEF TO SAY ANYTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT HIS LOVE OBJECT FAR LEFT SOCIALISM