Re: Trains in the UK
Posted: Sun 08 Jan, 2012 16.09
In my opinion, privatisation is never going to fully work as it's focus is going to be delivering profits rather than a quality service. OK, yes, there are measures that have been put in place to ensure that companies run a sufficient service and can't deliberately just focus on areas which make them lots of money and let others just ruin. But it's just not enough because so much is run on the basis of "it'll do" and certain areas get neglected.
Having said that, the managers of each rail company are to be commended as they do an incredibly difficult job - Managing Directors of rail companies are effectively middle management as they get grief from below about resources and then grief from above about new ways to deliver profits. It's also beneficial to have separate teams that are only focussed on the services they run, rather than having to worry about other areas of the country.
Privatisation should also lead to competition with each company trying to outdo the other. Hmmmm, OK that happens in some areas but many routes are served by one operator and it's simply up to them what they want to do. And then when there's a choice - for example London Midland and Virgin Trains who operate similar routes between the Midlands and London - there's just no comparison between the services. It's one of the lesser evils though as at least London Midland price their tickets accordingly for the fact that you face a longer journey on an often uncomfortable seat.
The biggest problem, in my eyes, is that we started out rail network too early. Sounds odd to say I know but we pioneered the railway and took great strides. The trouble is, it meant that we had to think earlier about what happens when things start to fail, how can we implement new technology. Even now, some equipment that holds up the rail infrastructure is incredibly old and for a long time we've had to effectively fire fight in order to keep the network going. For such a long time we didn't take the brave steps of bringing in new technology and instead just mending the old. This is why we are hearing so much about investment now but it's what is costing the passenger so much.
Other countries were able to look at what we achieved - take the best bits and improve on them. Many intercity routes were built with advanced signalling technology available which means that costs can be kept down as the services can be largely automated. OK, we didn't have that luxury but we also failed to see what was happening elsewhere and think whether we should be doing something similar.
All in all though, services are probably at the best they have been for a long time, but boy we've had to pay the privilege to get here. And we will be paying for a long time to come.
Having said that, the managers of each rail company are to be commended as they do an incredibly difficult job - Managing Directors of rail companies are effectively middle management as they get grief from below about resources and then grief from above about new ways to deliver profits. It's also beneficial to have separate teams that are only focussed on the services they run, rather than having to worry about other areas of the country.
Privatisation should also lead to competition with each company trying to outdo the other. Hmmmm, OK that happens in some areas but many routes are served by one operator and it's simply up to them what they want to do. And then when there's a choice - for example London Midland and Virgin Trains who operate similar routes between the Midlands and London - there's just no comparison between the services. It's one of the lesser evils though as at least London Midland price their tickets accordingly for the fact that you face a longer journey on an often uncomfortable seat.
The biggest problem, in my eyes, is that we started out rail network too early. Sounds odd to say I know but we pioneered the railway and took great strides. The trouble is, it meant that we had to think earlier about what happens when things start to fail, how can we implement new technology. Even now, some equipment that holds up the rail infrastructure is incredibly old and for a long time we've had to effectively fire fight in order to keep the network going. For such a long time we didn't take the brave steps of bringing in new technology and instead just mending the old. This is why we are hearing so much about investment now but it's what is costing the passenger so much.
Other countries were able to look at what we achieved - take the best bits and improve on them. Many intercity routes were built with advanced signalling technology available which means that costs can be kept down as the services can be largely automated. OK, we didn't have that luxury but we also failed to see what was happening elsewhere and think whether we should be doing something similar.
All in all though, services are probably at the best they have been for a long time, but boy we've had to pay the privilege to get here. And we will be paying for a long time to come.
(Network Rail).