I used to work for British Rail, so I can tell you how awful it was... Don't ... trends now
247
View
comments
Labour's plan to take rail franchises back into public hands might be popular with younger voters – but far less so among those of us who remember British Rail.
I was not just a passenger on its slow, dirty services in the 1980s – for a couple of years I was employed as an engineer in BR's research department in Derby.
When I arrived in 1985, the famous tilting Advanced Passenger Train – the very reason the research department was set up in the first place – was sitting out in the sidings waiting to be scrapped.
The project had been held up for years by militant trade unions who insisted that any train travelling over 100 mph should have two drivers. When it was finally introduced on the West Coast Mainline in December 1981, passengers complained of motion sickness.
A British Rail train. Labour's plan to take rail franchises back into public hands might be popular with younger voters – but far less so among those of us who remember British Rail
Louise Haigh, Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary, is behind the plans to re-nationalise the railways under Labour
Graphic showing which trainline Labour plans to nationalise if elected at the general election
Various problems and the snowy weather meant it was withdrawn entirely just weeks after its debut.
BR was desperate for more trains. And so they unveiled to me their latest proud innovation: a Leyland bus mounted on rail wheels.
This was the prototype of the 'Pacer' trains which were to shake the bones of branch-line passengers until the last one retired in 2020.
The point is that people forget just how lousy BR was. On one occasion during my time there it was confronted with the problem of a service in Devon that was always overcrowded. BR's solution? Cancel the service altogether. No train, no overcrowding – that was the logic.
Meanwhile, a
