British Rail > Reviews (29)

By way of opening, yes, I am aware that BR does not exist anymore. This however, is an opinion about the whole rail network and it seemed fitting to put it here, after all, as you will see, BR had its merits.

Many of us rely on rail travel every day and there can be few people who have never been on a train. Whether we use the railways for daily commuting or the occasional trip away we should be able to rely on the fact that there will be trains, that they will turn up on time and get to their destination with the minimum of delay.

That’s what should happen. In reality we are faced with a crippled rail network, poor rolling stock and high prices. Rail travel is no longer guaranteed to get you to your destination on time or at all. The infrastructure has got so bad that from every corner there is a cry. The public blame the government, current labour or former conservative (or both). The rail unions come under scrutiny. Railtrack (now in administration) gets cited as a company unable to carry on its affairs. But whoever is to blame it is becoming increasingly important that we sort things out, and quickly.

The London Chamber of Commerce was recently quoted as having said that the recent round of SWT, Arriva and Scotrail strikes cost businesses over £100m. That figure will comprise lost revenues, contracts, added travel costs and so on for the companies concerned. I am one of those lucky people who rely on SWT everyday. I worked from home during the strike but fortunately my job allowed me to do so and I have the technology at home to allow me to do my job without hindrance (broadband internet, phone and fax). How many others are in such a fortunate position?

The railways have been through all sorts, a nationalised industry, sold off under the conservative government and interfered with by the present labour government. Once anti-privatisation, new labour seem keen now to insist that the way forward is to have private investment! They shy away from renationalisation but yet were perfectly happy to pull the plug on Railtrack and are seemingly happy to get into the latest rows about pay and conditions of rail employees (although, to quote Mr Byers “it is not for the Government to intervene directly in disputes between private companies and their employees”). Me thinks they are confused!

The rail network is almost unique creature. It is a collection of private companies utilising another company’s tracks (Railtrack) to carry the PUBLIC. Everything that the private companies do affects the man on the street, whether he likes it or not. If the Ford workers at Dagenham go on strike, the only people affected are Fords and possibly the dealer networks. When the rail workers go on strike the public is affected. The rail companies lose goodwill and a little revenue but as well over 50% of a rail companies income is from season ticket holders their loss is reduced (you do get compensation for strike days, but at a lower rate than the cost of a single daily ticket).

Business suffers as staff cannot get into work. People may even die as essential services find themselves understaffed and emergency vehicles unable to cut through the traffic jams that abound. Extreme? I don’t think so.

The government has recently unveiled the Strategic Rail Authority’s (“SRA”) plan for the future of the rail network. This has come under criticism from the word go. A rehash of old plans, doesn’t go far enough, has got its priorities wrong, are all claims that could be made of the plan.

There is no doubt that the railways have historically been underfunded and mismanaged. The famous West Coast mainline was budgeted to cost £2b. Latest estimates put that figure closer to £7b. Track maintenance suffered, cruelly exposed in the Hatfield disaster. Months of remedial work followed with trains put under speed limits until every inch of track was inspected. At what cost? Men were working 24 hours a day and, it was strongly rumoured that they were actually volunteering to work on Christmas Day, why? simple, they were being paid a small fortune to do so (figures of £2,000 a day were quoted).

So, the solution proffered by the SRA? In today’s money £4.3 billion each year over the next 10 years with a government subsidy of £2.94 billion (again at current prices). No mention of where the £1.36b shortfall is to come from.

There is a promise of new rolling stock by 2004. Now this may make delays more comfortable (and possibly prevent some of the “technical difficulties”) but its not really going to help us get to our destinations on time. Look at the C2C line where new rolling stock was introduced and then quickly removed from service because of unreliability. The slam-doors were brought back!

The end of 2003 should see the Train Protection Warning System installed which will prevent trains from going through red signals. This one is more laudable but how about just having drivers who stay awake and read the signals – oh sorry, I forgot, if you actually make them do their job (or worse discipline them for not doing their jobs) they go on strike!

Most controversial of all is the provision of £700m for station improvements. Whilst there are undoubtedly some stations that could do with a lick of paint is a tarted up station really going to make us feel better about using the railways? The newly painted toilets will doubtlessly be locked because of the risk of vandalism, the waiting room will be cold because it will be unsafe to have heating in there and will smell strongly of urine and the station clock will be wrong, no, sorry, correction, the station clock will run to the new equivalent of BR time (ie whatever time it feels like showing or not as the case may be). And in any case the trains will be up and running again so why should I need to wait? Build me a new hospital instead.

We can all moan about the state of the railway but that offers no answers. For the sake of argument I am going to try to proffer some suggestions that I think might work.

CLAIRE's BOTTOM TEN TIPS TO GET THE RAILWAYS BACK UP AND RUNNING:

1 – The government have said that they want to cut down on the number of franchises that run the network. Why not renationalise or have only one company running the show. This should result in a less fragmented network (you may actually be able to buy a rail ticket to go from A to B where you can travel on any train and not just the trains of one operator). The railways are not going to be hugely profitable for a long time and investment will be easier if you have the whole network to work with.

2 – State funding would also mean that the railways could be run on a not for profit basis (which is, I think being considered anyway). This would stop the cutting of corners.

3 – Make the rail workers akin to the police, not being able to strike. As with the rest of us, if you don’t like the conditions or your pay deal go find another job. I was incensed at the fact that in the current economic climate rail guards felt able to strike when offered a pay rise. I’m sure there are many who would welcome a pay rise rather than a cut or threat of redundancy that many are facing.

4 – The concern for the travelling public is, I am sure, how reliable the service is, not whether you have an electric door or a newly covered seat. That can wait. Let’s sort out the system first.

5 – Although 70% of rail traffic everyday is in the South East one should not forget the other major cities around the country. After all not 70% of the rail traffic starts in the south east every day!

6 – When looking at the track thought should also be given to providing more “passing points” to relieve the situation when a train breaks down. Many rails go for miles and miles on a one track up, one track down basis. If there is a problem with a train or the track then the whole line grinds to a halt.

7 - Consider the needs of the travelling public when selecting train length or use the highest common denominator all of the time.

8 - If the Timetable is constantly not being met then look at why and consider revising the timetable (as SWT does in autumn on a particularly leafy stretch of line).

9 - Work in conjunction with town planners and major businesses to discover their needs, after all, it is generally because of one or both of these that we are travelling at all.

10 ....or we could simply remove the need to commute – forget the railways and use the money to build mini-cities in the suburbs so that people can walk to work – now there’s a vision of the 70s (Milton Keynes/Welwyn Garden City to name but two!).

I would urge all involved in the rail industry to think carefully. Investors are going to be wary after the Railtrack debacle. Commuters are worried after the spate of rail accidents. Casual travellers are switching away from the railway as unreliability is rife. Don’t put on your make up. You cannot make an OAP look 20 with a bit of lippy. Look at the foundations. Get the diet right and the undergarments sorted before applying the make up.

To quote Mr Byer’s himself: “No more vague aspirations or grand visions strong on rhetoric but weak on delivery.”

Finally to my title – more apt than you may have realised. The plain fact is that we will never get the railways sorted under the current government. Not by rail is an anagram of Tony Blair. Fitting eh?