The world’s most efficient, nationalised rail networks [Video]

In case you missed it, this week Labour leader Keir Starmer pledged that, if elected, Labour would renationalise the railways within five years of coming into power.

Ownership of the British railway system has been a political hot potato for decades now. It was first nationalised (AKA, brought into public ownership) by Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1948, and later reprivatised by Conservative PM John Major in 1993 under the Railways Act.

Met with waves of strikes over pay and working conditions, services have been disrupted in recent years, and while the Conservatives pledged to improve connections between London and various other UK cities through HS2, it’s faced a number of issues that have led to delays in its opening.

Likewise, there have been problems with the various private companies operating the services. Avanti West Coast was recently named the most unreliable train service in Britain, with 15.36% of all trains being cancelled or delayed by 15 minutes or more, equating to 1,289,833 lost minutes.

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