Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 June 2008 12:59:35
I have had a very restful weekend. I'm getting ready for the coming storm.
Next weekend we're off to see Indiana Jones; the following weekend it's Bruce Stringbean in Cardiff and then it's off to Leeds for the Caring For Life Open Day for the weekend, the week after. Not much to do in June then.....
Today's Rant:
The botched privatisation of the railways by the Conservatives has led to a very dubious legacy. We have a "privatised" industry where the private companies have to get all decisions ratified by the Department for transport (DfT). However the government declare that this is not actually true and that there is no government interference in the rail network.
Recently Network Rail (NR) were fined £14m by the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) for the overruns that occurred on the West Coast Mainline, Liverpool Street and Edinburgh Waverley improvemnt works last December/January. When the fine was announced in March we were told that the money would be reinvested in the rail network. Later it was discovered that this was not the case; instead the money would return to the Treasury - to be lost forever.
No we find that it is the government that are oputiing blocks on timetable improvements and investment in rolling stock. So much for having a privatised industry then. In addition the government are not allowing NR to proceed with large projects but telling them to hold fire.
The whole idea of the rail network is that it should be used to get the public, and freight, off the roads, out of the air and onto the rail - after all this is the greenest method of transportation. Yet the government does not want to expand the network to achieve this but wants to sweat more from the current, out dated assets.
They should be taking the lead on opening deicated freight lines to alleviate capacity restraints around major bottlenecks. We should be seeing more regional freight centres to help remove freight form the roads, thus reducing congestion and lower the country's carbon footprint. Instead it wants to run freight and passenger services over the same network but reduce freight's access to it.
This government has had 10 years to put right the failings of the Conservative privatisation. Instead we're seeing greater interference than British Rail ever had. In addition everything is being centralised and the railways are suffering for it. We should be looking at giving more power to regional managers, in the same way that British Rail did. They should be allowed to make decisions that could bring immediate benefits.
This has already happened in Scotland, Wales and on Merseyside. Why not elsewhere?
History Today:
455 : Geiseric The Vandal captures and brutally sacks Rome. His followers are carrying out the work around the world today.
1780: The six day long Gordon Riots, named after anti-Catholic agitator Lord George Gordon, begin in London. We had more of them last week, thanks to the lorry drivers.
1953: Elizabeth II is crowned queen at Westminster Abbey. No one remebers electing her though ;-)