PoliticsHome | Majority of public support full railway nationalisation

Thursday 2nd July 2009 | 11:53

Majority of public support full railway nationalisation

The first poll since news broke of the nationalisation of the East Coast rail line reveals that a majority of voters would like the UK's railways to be fully nationalised. Nationalisation is the favoured option of voters across the political spectrum, including Conservative party supporters.

A new PoliticsHome poll reveals that a majority of the British public support full renationalisation of the country’s rail network.

Research conducted since news broke of the nationalisation of the East Coast rail line (run by National Express) indicates that complete renationalisation is now the favoured option for railways among voters across the UK’s political spectrum.

Even Conservative supporters – typically thought of as sympathetic to privatisation – prefer full nationalisation of the railways to any other option.

Clear majorities of Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters, as well as non-aligned voters, also support full nationalisation.

Overall, fifty one per cent of the public support full nationalisation.

A further eighteen per cent want a higher level government involvement that stopped short of full nationalisation.

Just eleven per cent of voters think that the current set up should be maintained. A comparable proportion would like to see full privatisation.

PoliticsHome interviewed 1219 adults by email between 1-2 July 2009. Results are weighted by party ID to reflect the UK at large.

Leave a comment...

JGS

13:27 |
02 Jul 2009
Recommended
1

Appalling though the present highway robbers running our railways might be, nothing, but nothing, will ever be as bad as the world-beatingly awful British Rail of my youth.

Paleo

14:14 |
02 Jul 2009
Recommended
4

And why was BR awful? Anything to do with the atrocious level of government investment from around 1960?

Barbara Stevens

14:16 |
24 Jul 2009
0

Lets face it the old British Rail was left out of investment for years by Tory governments over the 60.s 70's, the sale as not brought any difference to the taxpayer for we are still subsidising it now, what we should have is a 50/50 ownership in shares and investment for the taxpayer with 50% of profits paid back into the taxpayers pockets. This would enable investment to continue and we the public would be guarrenteed some reasonable service with reasonable respectable trains to ride in. Better than what we have now and what we had in the past.

sam

14:18 |
07 Oct 2009
0

Railways aren't profitable run by themselves as a stand-alone business, thats why the big four all had shipping liners, road haulage and buses as well as railways: they will only cease to be a burden on the taxpayer after they are incorporated into a larger business plan. Nationalisation would merely make that less likely and increase the level of taxation required to keep the whole thing running because unions would insist on maximum pay and the rest of us on cheapest fares: leaving the balance on the (already vast) national debt. We can't afford to nationalise them, or subsudise them, therefore cease subsidising them and let profitable airline and shipping firms buy them, and maybe the buses too, then we can have an integrated (hopefully competitative) transport/logistics system without civil servants spending our money on the impossible.

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Majority of public support full railway nationalisation