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07-11-2022, 10:41 AM
John Harris
Sun 6 Nov 2022 13.51 GMT
Last modified on Sun 6 Nov 2022 17.49 GMT
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Thanks to the train company Avanti West Coast, journeys between such cities as London, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Glasgow have been cut back, only to be further plagued by cancellations, delays, overcrowding and grim customer service.
TransPennine Express (TPE) trains, which serve a huge range of towns and cities including Hull, Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield, are in an even worse state of disarray. What both stories have in common is the involvement of FirstGroup, the multinational transport giant that claims to be in the business of “making travel smoother and life easier”. To an almost surreal extent, the current reality suggests the exact opposite: people peeing in Pringles tubes, lying on train floors and – particularly in the case of disabled travellers – enduring nightmarish experiences.
......
For a very long time, train companies have kept services running via drivers working on their official rest days and being paid overtime: a cheaper option, in the short term, than recruiting and training more staff. The result has been a precarious system kept running by goodwill – which, at Avanti and TPE, seems to have long since dwindled away. Rail experts say that the government has serially ignored FirstGroup’s failures, and carried on handing it fees and favours it simply doesn’t deserve. Tellingly, the Department for Transport’s solution to the west coast mainline’s meltdown has been to extend Avanti’s contract, a move that the train drivers’ union Aslef curtly sums up as “a slap in the face to passengers and staff”.
......
The recent history of Britain’s trains is much the same as that of the country itself: a hare-brained plunge into privatisation and crony capitalism, followed by endless underinvestment, chronic short-termism
......
The World Economic Forum now places the UK 29th in its global rankings for the quality of its railways, in between Kazakhstan and India.
......
Two years ago, it began a shift away from so-called franchising arrangements with train companies to more straightforward contracts: instead of keeping revenue from tickets, the companies now get fixed fees and performance bonuses, and risk has largely been transferred to the state. On paper, that looks like a step in the right direction, but it might actually entail the worst of all worlds: trains still largely run by private firms on short contracts, which are therefore reluctant to invest for the long term
......
The only viable alternative is plain enough: ...... to renationalise the railways as train companies’ contracts expire (which would largely happen in the first term of the next government) and institute what the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, calls “an integrated national system, with passengers as a proper priority, rather than shareholders, and long-term investment”.
Much better to read the full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...tion-delay
Sun 6 Nov 2022 13.51 GMT
Last modified on Sun 6 Nov 2022 17.49 GMT
......
Thanks to the train company Avanti West Coast, journeys between such cities as London, Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Glasgow have been cut back, only to be further plagued by cancellations, delays, overcrowding and grim customer service.
TransPennine Express (TPE) trains, which serve a huge range of towns and cities including Hull, Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield, are in an even worse state of disarray. What both stories have in common is the involvement of FirstGroup, the multinational transport giant that claims to be in the business of “making travel smoother and life easier”. To an almost surreal extent, the current reality suggests the exact opposite: people peeing in Pringles tubes, lying on train floors and – particularly in the case of disabled travellers – enduring nightmarish experiences.
......
For a very long time, train companies have kept services running via drivers working on their official rest days and being paid overtime: a cheaper option, in the short term, than recruiting and training more staff. The result has been a precarious system kept running by goodwill – which, at Avanti and TPE, seems to have long since dwindled away. Rail experts say that the government has serially ignored FirstGroup’s failures, and carried on handing it fees and favours it simply doesn’t deserve. Tellingly, the Department for Transport’s solution to the west coast mainline’s meltdown has been to extend Avanti’s contract, a move that the train drivers’ union Aslef curtly sums up as “a slap in the face to passengers and staff”.
......
The recent history of Britain’s trains is much the same as that of the country itself: a hare-brained plunge into privatisation and crony capitalism, followed by endless underinvestment, chronic short-termism
......
The World Economic Forum now places the UK 29th in its global rankings for the quality of its railways, in between Kazakhstan and India.
......
Two years ago, it began a shift away from so-called franchising arrangements with train companies to more straightforward contracts: instead of keeping revenue from tickets, the companies now get fixed fees and performance bonuses, and risk has largely been transferred to the state. On paper, that looks like a step in the right direction, but it might actually entail the worst of all worlds: trains still largely run by private firms on short contracts, which are therefore reluctant to invest for the long term
......
The only viable alternative is plain enough: ...... to renationalise the railways as train companies’ contracts expire (which would largely happen in the first term of the next government) and institute what the shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, calls “an integrated national system, with passengers as a proper priority, rather than shareholders, and long-term investment”.
Much better to read the full article at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...tion-delay
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