Grumpy Old Git #1"Evil train companies impose inflation busting price hikes" scream the newspaper headlines once again. Seemingly an annual event these days.
Britain now has the most expensive rail services in Europe, despite ten years of Labour (and I use the term advisedly) government.
The railways are receiving huge subsidies undreamt of in my time working for BR in the late 80s / early 90s. So why are costs so high?
Let's take a look at the structure. Network Rail, a semi-public "not for profit" body owns the tracks and stations. Several private leasing companies (ROSCOS) own the actual trains, many inherited at negligible cost from BR.
Train Operating companies (TOCS)actually run the services, paying the ROSCOS to lease the trains and Network Rail for access to the network.
To cap it all, the Department of Transport (DfT) decides service levels, subsidies and lets franchises to run TOCs.
Remember, the TOCS, ROSCOS and numerous other bodies, such as safety certification, track renewal, are all private companies with shareholders, out to make as much profit as possible. Thus the cost of leasing trains, providing maintenance, etc, is set artificially high meaning that the end cost is passed on to the passenger.
The situation is made worse by a Stalinist DfT, who award franchises not on service level or innovation but on how little subsidy or how much premium repayment can be made. Short franchise lengths and uncertainty in the market mean that joined up planning and long term ideas, such as stock replacement cannot be made.
With the treasury being increasingly greedy, the TOCs are struggling to make a profit and are now finding it hard to make any profit repayments. GNER has already folded and is being re-let. Several other TOCs are likely to face similar woes in the future.
Bit of a mess, isn't it? This from a government led my a man who pledged a "publicly owned and publicly accountable railway".
What can be done about it? In a word, re-nationalise....
For starters, remove the private sector from passenger train operation, maintenance and track renewal and merge these operations with Network Rail. The more levels of management that can be slashed, the more value can be had. With GNER now effectively under DfT control, there is a perfect opportunity.
Before the Major government sold off the system, British Rail was running very efficiently - it had to with a cost-conscious Tory government checking the cost of each rivet and bolt! The INTERCITY sector was making profit - of course, it owned the tracks, trans and did all it's own maintenance in-house. There were strategic plans for large-scale electrification and route modernisation, which are undreamt of now.
To summarise, if we had the same railway structure in place now, as was present in 1988, with the same level of public expenditure, we'd have a railway system the envy of Europe (even Switzerland).
Now we hear that the roads are too congested, and Mr Blair wants to introduce road-pricing (by using a car-based transponder system that tracks your every movement like a spy in the cab) and want us to use public transport more.
Instead of spending trillions on replacing Trident (which we've never used...), spend it on sorting out our national infrastructure now!!!
End of Rant.
