We are holding the first open campaign planning meeting this Sunday 29 August 2010 at 2pm at a venue near Edinburgh Waverley station.
If you are have suggestions or feedback and are keen to get actively involved in the Bring Back British Rail campaign, then please come along!
Email info@bringbackbritishrail.org for the venue details.
During the 2010 election campaign the Bring Back British Rail’s first official e-petition (hosted on the Number 10 website), was temporarily closed to new signatures. Following the formation of the new government, the totally unfair and undemocratic decision was taken not to reopen the petition. The line being: ‘existing e-petitions, submitted to the previous administration, will not be carried forward to the new administration’.
The new administration has however finally responded to 2,060 signatures that were recorded on the petition with the following statement:
“The Government believes that the needs of passengers must be at the heart of the UK’s railway. The railway needs an infrastructure operator that is responsive to its customers, and able to deliver the best possible results for both operators of railway services and their users.
The Government is committed to reforming Network Rail and to making it properly accountable to its customers. Ministers are currently examining the structures and incentives of the industry to see how best to enable this. It is vital that Network Rail governance structures enable the company to work effectively on behalf of passengers, freight customers and wider industry stakeholders.
The Government’s priority is to support the economy by reducing the deficit. The railway network is vital to economic growth but funding is not unlimited. Therefore even more efficient ways of operating, maintaining and renewing the network must be found. Sir Roy McNulty’s Rail Value for Money study will examine options for improving value for money across the railway industry while maintaining or improving safety.
The Government has pledged to put fairness at the heart of its approach to rail fares. The Rail Value for Money study and the Association of Train Operating Companies’ review of fares are expected to provide valuable input going forward in the medium term.
Demand for rail travel between major British conurbations is expected to increase significantly over the next twenty to thirty years, and the Government is committed to establish a high-speed rail network as part of its ambitions for a low-carbon and eco-friendly economy.”
Read New Government’s Response online >
Read New Government’s Statement on e-petitions service >
The Bring Back British Rail will now spend the summer planning new campaign strategies. If you have any good suggestions or would like to get actively involved, please do get in touch.
The Bring Back British Rail campaign’s official online petition hosted on the Number 10 website will be unavailable to sign until it is officially reopened by the new government’s administration once they have decided ‘how best to proceed with the e-petitions service’. We hope this will be soon!
Because of this disruption, our petition’s deadline has been extended until 27 July 2010. As soon as the petition is reopened, the campaign will focus all its attention on collecting as many signatures as possible in the short period before it closes finally on 27 July 2010.
We need your help to do this! Please join our thriving Facebook page or our mailing list to stay up-to-date with what is happening.
Following the 27 July 2010 deadline, our petition will be submitted to the new government for their official response. Any petition with over 100,000 signatures will be debated in parliament, so that should be our target!
“Inherently sensible, not to mention stylishly merchandised” – the Bring Back British Rail campaign gets a big thumbs-up in the WeLike section on page 2 of Scotland’s The List Magazine 18 February – 4 March 2010.
Help support the campaign and spread the word by grabbing some of our stylish merchandise today! The campaign t-shirts and the enamel lapel badges (available exclusively to those joining our membership scheme), both feature our now famous ‘back-to-front’ double arrow logo designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio.
The Bring Back British Rail campaign gets a great little preview by Emma Rubach on page 46 of The Big Issue magazine 1 – 7 March 2010.
“Who remembers the glory days of British Rail (BR)? I’m proud to say I’m too young, but I do remember my father complaining about BR (especially waiting for ‘the engineers’ to be called out – no rail replacement buses in those days, or mobile phones).
Perhaps it’s our unstoppable nostalgia for everything ’80s, or perhaps our current rail network is just such a shambles, but either way, a campaign called Bring Back British Rail is generating a surprising amount of support.
The campaign has generated over 2,000 signatories to a petition on the Number 10 website. It’s even commissioned a stylish update of the iconic BR logo, reworked to point forward (get it?). “The logo caused loads of controversy,” says Ellie Harrison, the founder of Bring Back British Rail. “To be honest, there are a lot of people out there who care a lot about trains, and they like things to be just so.”
Harrison, who at 30 is also too young to really remember waiting for the engineers to be called out, insists she’s not talking about bringing back that British Rail. For anyone fearing delayed trains, soggy sandwiches and strike action, she points out that the old version of BR was willfully under-resourced.
In its place, she argues, we now have one of the most expensive railway networks in Europe, tied to an evermore confusing fare structure which seems to be steadily growing in price as the economy shrinks.
“I travel a lot on trains and it became obvious to me that since the railways were privatised, we’ve endured an expensive and confusing 18 years, pretty much in silence,” says Harrison. “Bringing our trains back to an integrated, central point which is run for public gain rather than private profit would solve the problem.”
She hopes that the campaign will catch the attention of vote-hungry MPs as the election approaches. To support Ellie’s campaign, visit bringbackbritishrail.org. Mullet haircut optional.”
We are very pleased to announce the launch of our new annual membership scheme.
For just £10, members will receive an exclusive Bring Back British Rail enamel lapel badge (30 x 8.9 mm, shown below), which is unavailable to purchase anywhere else. All members will be acknowledged on the support page of this website and will be kept up-to-date with campaign activities via the mailing list.
Money raised from the membership scheme will be used to fund campaign materials and activities. Badges will be sent out from February 2010 onwards. You are free to cancel your membership at any point, otherwise you will be charged £10 annually.
More Bring Back British Rail campaign t-shirts are now available to order for just £12 each including delivery in the UK.
The first batch of t-shirts sold out in less than a week just before Christmas.
We now have a second batch, ready to be sent out. All t-shirts are plain white cotton, with a screen-printed logo on the front and back (shown below). Available in small, medium, large and x-large.
A Bring Back British Rail t-shirt is great way of showing your support and spreading the word about the campaign!
On 26 November 2009 Ellie Harrison represented the Bring Back British Rail campaign in a live debate about the renationalisation of the country’s railways on the BBC Radio 5 live Richard Bacon show.
Listen Now >
MP3 audio file
00:33:27, 38.3MB
The debate is chaired by Rachel Burden (sitting in for Richard Bacon). Guests include journalist Boyd Hilton, Douglas McNeill – transport analyst at Astaire Securities, Gerry Doherty – general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), Ellie Harrison and many disgruntled passengers calling in from all around the country.
Two days before the renationalisation of the National Express East Coast mainline, Bring Back British Rail launches its first press release outlining the campaign’s aims.
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