{"id":42206,"date":"2018-06-15T09:21:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T08:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=42206"},"modified":"2018-06-15T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T08:21:53","slug":"is-rail-privatisation-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/06\/15\/is-rail-privatisation-dying\/","title":{"rendered":"Is rail privatisation dying?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2018\/jun\/14\/fall-in-uk-rail-passenger-numbers-casts-doubt-on-viability-of-franchises?utm_source=esp&amp;utm_medium=Email&amp;utm_campaign=Business+Today&amp;utm_term=278106&amp;subid=280978&amp;CMP=business_today\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian<\/a> has published this graphic\u00a0 based on newly published data on rail travel:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/06\/15\/is-rail-privatisation-dying\/screen-shot-2018-06-15-at-09-12-31\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-42207\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-42207\" src=\"http:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31-550x505.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"505\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31-550x505.png 550w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31-327x300.png 327w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31-768x705.png 768w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31-435x400.png 435w, https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Screen-Shot-2018-06-15-at-09.12.31.png 1276w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The evidence of a\u00a0 downturn in commuting appears very clear.\u00a0 \u00a0Whilst one-off\u00a0rail journeys continue to rise, which is welcome given they are better environmental alternative to cars,\u00a0 commuter traffic is falling. And this is equally welcome:\u00a0 there is no joy in commuting. IT is liberating many of us (me included for much of the year) from the need to be physically present at work.<\/p>\n<p>This, however, has important ramifications.\u00a0 Almost all businesses assume ever-rising demand for their product, and rail franchises have almost universally been granted on the basis that this is the case for rail travel. If it is not true then many of those franchises will fail.<\/p>\n<p>That does not mean we no longer need railways. Or that the railway industry has failed:\u00a0 it will not have done so.\u00a0 All that will be proven is that private rail operators\u00a0have limited commercial aptitude, and the model within which they work has little commercial merit.<\/p>\n<p>The alternative is,\u00a0 of course, state ownership. Labour has to do very little, I suspect,\u00a0 to promote this now.\u00a0 Over the next few years rail franchise operators will be queueing up to hand back the keys to their trains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian has published this graphic\u00a0 based on newly published data on rail travel: The evidence of a\u00a0 downturn in commuting appears very clear.\u00a0 \u00a0Whilst<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2018\/06\/15\/is-rail-privatisation-dying\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}