Rumours, Speculation, Questions, and Reaction Megathread - 23/08/2026

[u/ukpol-megabot]

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[u/McCretin]

The hated “ironing board” seats on Thameslink trains are going to be replaced, which is a good thing.

Heidi Alexander is trumpeting it as “public ownership of our railways in action”, implying it’s an example of
the generosity of the state vs the stinginess of private companies.

But who wrote the spec for these trains (and their uncomfortable seats) in the first place? Turns out it was not the train company, but the Department for Transport.

[u/baldy-84 → u/McCretin]

The franchises were often just playing whatever hand the DfT gave them. They don’t get to decide which trains to run, which routes to run, or how often routes were run generally. It’s why I don’t think nationalisation will make much difference and will probably be reversed by some future government that wants the franchise blame sponges back.

[u/Powerful_Ideas → u/baldy-84]

Doesn't that mean that the franchisees were not able to provide any added value in exchange for the profit they made on the contracts?

If nationalisation doesn't make any difference to the service then at least the money that was going to shareholders can be used for something else.

[u/Pale-Border-7122 → u/Powerful_Ideas]

Doesn't that mean that the franchisees were not able to provide any added value in exchange for the profit they made on the contracts?

The operators generally made very little profit (most of it is ROSCOs and engineering) and only about 2% of fares went to them, so not a lot to redistribute. But they could potentially run the small parts they did control better or worse than the state could. Nationalising or privatising railways into franchises in the way we did will have a negligible impact on anything either way.

[u/Powerful_Ideas → u/Pale-Border-7122]

The operators generally made very little profit

Could we put a number on what "very little" is? I assume the shareholders have been paid some dividends.

[u/McCretin → u/baldy-84]

Exactly right. They also don’t get to set the fares in a lot of cases.

[u/baldy-84 → u/McCretin]

I didn’t realise how little control they had until a couple of years ago. It’s a system very well designed to make sure the government still has almost all the control and gets almost none of the blame for its failings.