This Is Why Votes For The Green Party Went Down In Real Terms At The Last British General Election

When the Green Party comes out with crap like this.

The rails for the British railway network are already in public hands, run by Network Rail.

It used to be privatised, but that ended in 2002 – eighteen years ago – when it was taken over by the Department of Transport, in whose hands it has remained ever since. This is why it is the only part of the railway legally entitled to use the old British Railways ‘Intercity’ twin arrows logo. The period where the rails were nationalised was only six years – and was stopped after a series of fatal train crashes showed private companies could not be trusted to look after the tracks.

It is responsible for the rail lines, bridges, tunnels, and is also responsible for twenty railway stations which are not allowed to fall into the hands of private railway companies (which are all the major railway stations within London and ten outside of it). It also owns the various trains used for track and line repairs.

Any money made by Network Rail has to be ploughed directly back into the rail lines infrastructure, and it still receives grants on top of these from central and local government.

As for electrifying the rails, this is something tried before in the very dim and distant past but now only confined to enclosed underground railway circuits (ie. those which do not double up as overground trains, as is the case in London) for safety reasons – especially wildlife. The Kine saga by A. R. Lloyd mentions animals being electrocuted on the old style electrified lines.

If the Green Party wants to be taken seriously, perhaps it could start by sacking whatever skeet came up with the above silly ideas.