BRING BACK BRITISH RAIL!

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2011 :: RMTnews 18 Earlier this year I became one of over 3,000 people to sign up to an intriguing social media campaign ‘Bring Back British Rail’ www.bringbackbritishrail.org/ BBBR, which uses the British Rail ‘double arrow’ logo in reverse, says that it will turn the logo the right way round when railways return to public ownership. Perhaps it’s a good thing they are careful how they use a symbol that is still a trademarked logo, since BBBR stickers are popping up all over the place these days on trains, stations and staff uniforms. The BBBR website also does a nice line in T-shirts and even Oyster card holders! BBBR founder, Ellie Harrison describes this new internet- based movement as “the collective voice of disgruntled rail passengers and disheartened rail employees, calling for a newly unified national rail network run for people not profit”. Ellie also points out that BBBR is a ‘meme’, which is to say a vehicle for carrying political ideas, symbols or practices throughout society. “As soon as someone hears the name of the campaign they immediately know exactly what is about,” she points out “and the call to Bring Back British Rail appeals to people in a more instinctive, gut-level way than more deliberately ‘political’ demands for better rail regulation, or renationalisation of private operators”, despite the fact it means exactly the same thing. “This is not ‘art’,” she insists with conviction, “this is a campaign to get our railways back from greedy privateers. “It’s obvious that people are angry and frustrated with the way the railway system has been run in this country since it was dismantled and sold off in the ‘90s, and recent extortionate train fare rises have only made the situation worse. “I began the campaign two years ago after enduring years of delayed, over-priced and over-crowded journeys around the UK. I finally snapped. “It was clear from my experience as a passenger, that having so many competing franchises running separate sections of the network was both efficient and unsafe. “It resulted in people like me getting a raw deal, while the shareholders in private train companies, who probably don’t even use the trains, swanned off with our public transport subsidies,” she says with gusto. And Bring Back British Rail really has struck a chord with people using and working on the railways. RMT joined forces with BBBR and the Campaign for Better Transport only last month for a mass protest outside Waterloo station as huge rail fare increases of up to 13% BRING BACK BRITISH RAIL! RMT president Alex Gordon interviews artist/political activist Ellie Harrison, founder of the Bring Back British Rail campaign and asks RMT members to sign up and get involved