Nationalisation of British Railways

Recently the new labour government had decided to re-nationalise the railways, they're doing it by not renewing the contracts of the line operators; when their contract finishes, the line becomes part of the states public controlled services. As far as I know, south western railways have already become part of the state owned railways. 

I thought it would be a good idea to abolish peak time rates, even if it makes the off peak rates more expensive. I think a lot of Brits feel blind sided or ripped off when they pay for peak time rates, they don't get a better service for paying more for their ticket. I think the price of the ticket should reflect the distance travelled alone.  Perhaps they should set the price to 5p per kilometre for the whole Island of Britain. Perhaps 10p per kilometre if that is what it costs to abolish peak time rates.

In my model, the distance from Wembley park station to Finchley Road is 7 kilometres , so the price would be 35p because they were charged 5 pence for every kilometre travelled. 

Another example would be going from Barking station to Southend Central, the distance between those stations is 43 kilometres  so they would pay £2.15. it would be £4.30 if they were charged 10 pence per kilometre. In my model there is no peak time or rail card. The customer pays for the distance they were moved by the train, that's it. 

The distance between London and Edinburgh in Scotland is about 500 km  but the trains bend and turn around the valleys so I think a train journey would be about 600km, in my model, the ticket would cost about £30 or £60 for 10p per kilometre. That is probably the longest journey people will make on this Island. 

British Train Inconsistencies

I noticed the pricing on rail tickets in the UK are inconsistent. I'll give you an example..

The distance between Barking and Southend, and the distance between High Wycombe and Marylebone is roughly 50 km for both journeys but the rail providers charge different prices for off peak trips. 

A C2C train from Barking station to Southend central is £8.50, that is about 15p per kilometre. A trip from High Wycombe to Marylebone is more expensive. 

A journey of a similar distance, 50km is more expensive on the Chilterns railway, it costs about 26p per kilometre. It is so uncompetitive that it is cheaper to take an Uber if you have 4 passengers. 

If you have 4 passengers, the journey will cost £11.48 per person because the whole car ride is £45.93

My question is why? Why is it cheaper to travel 50 km in the C2C train network then the children railways? Is it because the Chiltern railways still use diesel trains? Is it because there are two train lines that go to Southend so they face more competition? I don't know the answer, I only know that every rail network has different prices for equivalent distances. 

Winter Thoughts

It is the end of Autumn and the start of Winter. Some significant events that stand out are HS2 and the Kyle Rittenhouse court case. 

Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty in court; Many people were criticizing the Judge and the court. The truth is the Verdict is decided by the jury not the judge. The Jury had access to all the facts so they had a better position to make a verdict than us. I saw a young man that was being condemned by the world and then spared by reasoning from the jury of a court, his breathing was that of the wind in a tree, restless and at peace, finally given relief, that huge axe of condemnation was shifted away. As more and more evidence emerged, ordinary people like myself saw that he was defending himself and trying to stop rioters from destroying his town  where he worked. He supported the protests but was concerned about rioters burning everything up. The prosecution found no evidence that he or his close family and friends were white supremacists, even when they took his phone and looked through his social media history. 

I am skeptical of the HS2 railway project in Britain. I think the £96 billion could be spent on the existing railways we already have and the trains they are building are already old technology. I would spend that money building a box around the train tracks that collects sunlight and wind energy. I would build the boxes on the railways with diesel powered trains first so they could be converted to electric trains at the same time. If they did it that way, they would be fixing three problems with the same project, we still have diesel powered trains, we need to be net zero CO2 emmiters by 2050 and our railways are too expensive to run so the commuters are paying too much. In my view, building another railway is not the answer.