rural community

I begin, this week, with a break from coronavirus. This fascinating article argues for a new community enterprise approach to the provision of a number of rural rail lines. It tells us:

The Rail Reform Group – an independent think-tank of railway professionals – recently published a series of papers called The Enterprising Railway, looking at opportunities to develop a railway based on ‘the common good’.

What could work is a combination of greater local management, empowered to do much more than just run trains, with the security of being part of a much bigger network.

In its submission to the Williams Review, the Rail Reform Group argued for converting franchises – using ‘Northern’ as a pilot – into socially-owned businesses controlled by the community. It’s about applying a more co-operative approach. Government support would continue, but profits would go back into the railways, not to shareholders.

If ‘Northern Trains’ became a social enterprise with representation on its board from passengers, employees, local government and the business community, we’d be on the way to getting a railway that operates ‘for the common good’.