All too often the largely nationalised railway lets us down. On frequent strike days there may be no trains. On other days there may be delays and cancellations. There are bad weather days when service is impeded or cancelled.
The railway has lost its big five day a week commuting business. It used to overcharge this captive audience whilst discounting much of the leisure and pleasure business it used to try fill the off peak trains. It is having difficulty adjusting to a two three days a week in the office model, and to the more flexible hours of many. It is reluctant to make more changes to handle events and leisure travel more enthusiastically.
Before lockdown the average fare was £6.27 and the average subsidy £3.73 per ticket. Since lockdown the average fare has fallen to £6.12 and the average subsidy gone up to £7.51. So subsidy has doubled whilst the value of the fare has gone down.Why do taxpayers have to pay for people often with more income and leisure time than them to get cheap tickets?
I was on the committee that reported on how to privatise the railway. I disagreed with the majority report which proposed the system they adopted. They recommended splitting track ownership from trains and wanted a monopoly track company for the whole country.So Railtrack was born. It was nationalised by Labour. As I expected the monopoly track company did not perform well, though it was a bit safer than BR. It was nationalised following a bad crash brought on by track failures. As a monopoly it was more interested in revenue from existing assets than in evolving and growing the network.
Today we need railway management who can analyse current trends in commuting, leisure passenger travel and above all freight. We need a new pattern of use geared to maximising use, increasing revenues and cutting subsidies.
I will discuss the model I urged based on track and train together in line or regional companies facing competitive challenge in a later piece.
February 5, 2024
Another day, another column telling us how very badly this country is run. Kind to be reminded daily how to vote at the next Election – Reform, Labour, Green, SNP, but NEVER Conservative
February 5, 2024
So another wheel falls off of the net zero scam. The fine for boiler manufacturers is being dropped because they are increasing the price by£120 to cover the fines.
Did the government really believe the manufacturers would actually bear the cost.
Europe is ablaze as everyone wakens up to what’s going on.
February 5, 2024
Unfortunately, Ian, Britain is a bit slow at pushing back. Joe Public is speaking with their respective feet and not buying the enforced items, but government is pretty much, doubling down! Or at least, quangos etc are pressuring them.
So this backing down on fining manufacturers, is a small victory. We need many more, before net zero is stopped!
February 5, 2024
Joe Public has been shouting about net-zero for a decade but our woke governments aren’t listening
February 5, 2024
Just don’t vote for the net stupid, mass immigration,high taxes, woke EDI/ESG Parties and keep spreading the word. We need Reform.
February 5, 2024
Ian
Yes reality strikes home on this one, but many more U turns required to restore some common-sense.
February 5, 2024
The French farmers laid tons of soil over a motorway and planted grass seed. How very green of them 🙂
February 5, 2024
I never thought I’d congratulate the French ….but fare do’s
February 5, 2024
Nationalised railways do not let us down!! Your govt has done this. Either nationalise or privatise, your useless party cannot make a decision, so it is one foot in one foot out!! Again, blame someone else for not governing while in government!!
85 seat majority JR, wasted totally wasted. 59 of your MPs resigning before the election!! You all know how dire Sunak and Hunt are but do…..nothing! Sound familiar after 14 years of……nothing. Your party priorities Sex Education and Relationship Act to brainwash 4 year old children a man can be a woman! Diversity, Equality and inclusiveness a must through public and private sector! Good old fashion socialist budgets, Failed Brexit in every regard, with IRA laughing towards a united Ireland, undoubtedly cannot believe how useless and treacherous your PMs have been towards UK in favour of EU.
Sunak blaming doctor strikes for NHS waiting lists! Good grief, how about his mass immigration plan?
February 6, 2024
Sir John is loyal. Sir John says he hopes to change the perverse, subversive and deceitful party in government whatever it does from within. We can’t change him. He is made of stone.
February 5, 2024
Meanwhile production of smaller and affordable cars has stopped in the hope that enough profit can be made on upscale models to pay the similar tax for not selling EVs. Manufacturers have the option to subsidise their EV competitors by buying EV allowances from them. The arithmetic suggests that they would maintain competitiveness by not doing so, and simply hiking prices accordingly.
Doubtless all part if the grand plan to grind down the ordinary voter into a 15 minute neighbourhood with a bike if they’re lucky.
February 5, 2024
Mark
Running a Business should be simple, it is the Government who have made it hugely complicated.
Regulations for this, Laws for that, fines and taxes galore, Vat, Business rates, tax on profits, tax on dividends, endless employment rules, health and safety, commercial Insurance and insurance tax.
The list is almost endless, but the Government says it wants business to grow, but now we have a tax/fines on government set production targets. !!!!!
We have to live in the real World, they are in fantasy land.
February 5, 2024
Plus killing small businesses with the £85,000 VAT threshold. A greedy high tax, pro welfare Tory Party.
February 5, 2024
Mark :
The Net Zero Strategy has bigger goals than simply herd us into 15 minute cities. It is to destroy completely our wealth and ultimately our ability to defend ourselves.
CAGW does not exist, as shown by Happer & Wijngaarden whose calculations on the real atmosphere, including water vapour, unlike the IPCC models, show a negligible increase in GHG when atmospheric CO2 is doubled and impressively match the observed data so accurately they can even show, correctly, how CO2 actually cools rather than warms above Antarctica. Go to the CO2 Coalition website or YouTube ‘CO2, The Gas of Life, William Happer’.
The reason the climate activists have no issue with China’s emissions is because China is already an authoritarian/communist state.
February 5, 2024
Quite, just fiddling around the edges of the problem, and ‘trying out a new plan to see if that works’ , as this government seems to do, will give the same failed outcome.
I hope Sir J will ask/answer the important questions. Who uses, and wants to use, the rail for passenger and freight services (know your customer)? Does the rail network offer this service (offer what the customer will pay for) ? What is the competition? What will make the railway more attractive than road (competitive advantage)? Can a rail service be run as a private enterprise to give a return on investment for the long term, how so?
February 5, 2024
But Labour, Green, SNP, Plaid… will be even worse and Reform will be lucky to win a single seat.
So Sunak blames the increasing NHS waiting lists on the doctors strikes (an interview with Piers Morgan broadcast tonight). My relative a first year junior doctor (who is not striking) earns about £34K (£26K take home) pays rent in London is £13K for a small room & so after commuting costs, interest on six years of student debt, prof. fees, council tax, heat & light he has absolutely zero disposable income for food, lunches or fun. He works 40 hours a week plus 10 hours commuting often at odd hours on striking trains. It seems to me he should certainly be on strike. Doctors will not stay if treated so poorly.
Victoria Atkins the health secretary (a lawyer from Blackpool it seems) earns circa £160K PA (five times as much and will also get her commuting costs paid tax free on expenses too). She calls these doctors “doctors under training” – she herself has no medical training at all and has been in her position for under 3 months. Just by saying this “doctors under training” phrase indicates she is totally insensitive and unsuitable for a job in employment relations or management. A Health Secretary under zero training but badly in need of it – it seems.
February 5, 2024
Before lockdown the average fare was £6.27 and the average subsidy £3.73 per ticket. Since lockdown the average fare has fallen to £6.12 and the average subsidy gone up to £7.51.
So why if they are so efficient do they need such huge subsidies no VAT or fuel duty either. Cars pay vast net taxes, road taxes, fuel duty… yet trains often cost more than 20X as much per person mile.
February 5, 2024
As the name suggests, Reform would reform what is wrong.
February 5, 2024
Sadly though Reform has a few feet of clay.
Prejudice against right wing groups similar to that of the establishment.
The desire to mandate the “safe” vaccines.
Allowing an ex Labour MP to stand.
We are truly sunk.
February 6, 2024
Reform did get the “not so safe or effective”, “vaccines” very wrong!
February 5, 2024
Except Reform will have no power to do anything. They will be lucky to get a single MP. To do anything they need 350 or so. Their policies (cut taxes, cut immigration, cut waste, deregulate, ditch net zero… are largely right but without power they can do nothing.
February 5, 2024
Too many folk say they won’t vote for Reform because they have no chance of getting in. Self-defeating.
February 5, 2024
Past caring about voting for the least worst option. Reform or our Country will be destroyed by mass immigration, high borrowing and welfare for all. Our debt trajectory is already close to being unrecoverable under the Tory’s.
February 6, 2024
Ukip changed the political landscape without MPs because people voted for them. Groundswell.
Vote for what you belive not who will win.
Personally it’s none of the above for me. But my disdain is at least registered which voting for the usual suspects doesn’t do
February 5, 2024
Everhopeful and Lifelogic:
FPTP is probably the best system; certainly better than that PR mixture of nonsense the EU uses. However, 3.8 million votes to gain only one seat was extreme.
Predicting Reform Party failure is like betting on an OBR forecast being within 50% of actual a year before the event.
Reform has been steadily getting its act together and increasing its poll share beyond 10%. Dissatisfied Conservatives have nowhere better to go. Deducting one from Labour is better than abstaining to let them through, and switching from Conservative to Reform causes a difference of two. Any party with a balance of power wields strong leverage, causing others to yield.
Although being a previously loyal Conservative for decades, I’ve joined, donated to and support Reform now, and unless things radically change they’ll receive my one vote.
February 5, 2024
LL :
To vote Conservative at the next GE to attempt to keep out Labour would give all the existing Parliamentary parties the excuse to carry on as before because they will say the electorate are quite happy with Net Zero, massive immigration etc. but just wanted “a change”.
It is absolutely imperative that the incoming administration learns that these policies are not acceptable and that if they attempt to continue these policies they will also be turfed out of office.
Hence the need to vote Reform or for any candidate who is not from the Parliamentary Uniparty supporting mass immigration and Net Zero. At the 2019 European Parliament elections Brexit were first with 30% of the vote with the Lib Dems coming second with just 20% so the voters exist to throw out the existing Uniparty at the next GE.
February 5, 2024
The House of Commons is full of apathy on both benches. Don’t expect any passion from ministers to get a job done. Nobody in Government cares anymore. The country is just drifting whilst nefarious plotters institutionalise failure.
February 5, 2024
@Javelin – yup the majority have given up, looking to be signed up for a job-for-the-guys(Quango) rather than doing the job they are empowered and paid to do
February 5, 2024
The Conservative mayor of the West Midlands has an entirely different view. He is pro rail nationalisation, and has done just that with West Midlands trains.
Which is the authentic Conservative view?
Does it matter anyway when manifestos are routinely ignored.
February 5, 2024
Well whatever.
The railway we had come to rely on and which more or less did the job was snatched from us for bogus and cruel reasons.
It beggars belief that having decimated said service, necessitating the abolition of a five day week, there can be any talk of falling productivity!
(Young families imploding under the strain of “shoffices” crammed in ghastly cardboard houses).
Still, all going to plan/orders and all so very, very safe!
February 5, 2024
+1
“Save the NHS” ….. and destroy everything else …. oh, and the NHS as well. Didn’t see that one coming!
February 5, 2024
+++
Very true.
Apparently receptionists are now called “ Care Navigators”
Vomit.
February 5, 2024
People complain about horrid weather but thermometers operate efficiently, unquestioned and without blame. If nationalised rail ran efficiently people would use it without noticing the nuisance and waste on the track.
February 5, 2024
In 2022, the proportion of train journeys in Britain run by the public sector was reported to be 25%.
The public sector owns the whole of the rail network. So if we all own it shouldn’t we expect a return on the investment. I wonder what % of the subsidy goes to the public sector part of the organisation.
What % of the subsidy goes to the private train operators?
How much does Network Rail invest in new lines, or is all new money for new tracks provided by top-up from taxes? Shouldn’t we expect such a large organisation to make sufficient money to grow the business?
What do most people who never use trains get back for their subsidy? Shouldn’t we all get a passbook to use against off-peak fares?
February 5, 2024
Good morning.
I am not a rail nerd or even enthusiast but, I do seem to remember from my history lessons that railways and canals were built by private means and that governments job was to legislate. With that model the UK built the first railways.
So what went wrong ? And why can we not just go back to the system that worked in the first place. Railwaymen (ie businessmen) run the railways, and politicians basically create legislation and inquiries etc.
February 5, 2024
+++
I’ve often wondered that.
I suppose that the first railways were built with a view to cashing in on ( and destroying ) the excellent stagecoach model of travel.
There must also have been a lot of industrial money sloshing around looking for investment.
Now crony capitalists/technocrats (?) and their relatives just want to support investment in windmills and “safe” drugs.
Maybe land acquisition wasn’t such a problem then? Although not all landowners were enthusiastic.
Anyway I daresay we will soon be back to stagecoaches…apparently the woke are now looking seriously a horse power and transport.
They’ve forgotten about methane!
February 5, 2024
@Mark B +1
That’s the cruel Con being played out daily. Those that can, are sidelined by the empires built by those that can’t.
A start would be when the Government of the day hands our taxpayer money to any entity a Minister then becomes personalty responsible… Oh I forgot this Conservative Government is the one dishing out our money and is responsible for the high tax and borrowing because they haven’t a clue about managing they just don’t bother, they just like the glory of spending.
Not forgetting the Post Office, having a Post Office Minister that shrugs his shoulders because he couldn’t be bothered to manage and the little guy got persecuted – and he want to now lead the Country
February 5, 2024
Greece’s enormous subsidy to its railways allegedly was more costly than had passengers instead travelled by road taxi at government expense. Are we now close to matching that perhaps?
February 5, 2024
The RMT and ASLEF want this industry in public hands (under the control of Labour’s Socialist state) and so they will undermine the industry through strike action to achieve that.
The main issue as we all know is destructive unions. They can quite literally destroy this industry using all the tools they have available to them. If the trains aren’t moving then the industry is bankrupt. It’s akin to Tesco refusing to sell food on their shelves. Madness
The Tory government don’t want a war with the unions as its leaders are more interested in appearing conciliatory and kind so they have a green-light to inflict chaos How sweet they are while passengers and taxpayers are rogered
Tory malaise and moral bankruptcy is causing resentment and frustration as xxx Labour and their xxx allies grow stronger. Repeal all oppressive speech laws so that we can fight the left without fear
I sometimes wonder who the real enemy is.
February 5, 2024
Take freight off the roads – easing the congestion – and put it back where it belongs, on the railways.
February 5, 2024
Excellent idea, but who is going to invest in the new rail cargo terminals required at container ports? The only answer is the state, in the form of subsidies and grants. Probably coupled with a heavy tax on long-distance freight. Or even an announcement that long-distance freight will be phased out from 2030 onwards. Can you see the present government snubbing the road haulage lobby and taking those kind of steps? We’d agree that getting long-distance freight off the roads would be better for the environment. But the Green ideologists don’t try very hard against certain business interests, do they?
Reply Amazon has just invested hugely in delivery networks. Didnt need state subsidy.
February 5, 2024
Reply to reply
You’re talking about a company with annual revenue of $513 bn. Pleae name another company with that sort of money, that could be invested in a whole lot of new rail cargo terminals.
February 5, 2024
Don’t expect next day delivery or anything approaching that with the railways. The handling costs are prohibitive and delays will be normal.
February 5, 2024
Agree.
So much for “progress”. These vainglorious politicians in their self important bubbles.
Before Beeching no one was far from a station and it was perfectly possible to transport just about anything from A to B quickly. ( Actually, even in the 70s a bed from Plymouth to Plaistow for a few quid. Door to door).
Same with the Post Office.
Same with stagecoaches actually (Fresh fish London to Buckingham not a problem 1700s).
February 5, 2024
SG,
I think the sentiment of getting freight back on the railway is good however, the infrastructure is no longer available. Every major town and city had a British Rail Goods Depot and most stations had a goods yard. These have been built on. Most appear to be car parks.
I think people expect next day delivery of goods and I suspect, this would be almost impossible using the rail network given the need to get the goods to and from the railway.
Regarding commuter fares, I can remember worker return tickets which were tickets for blue collar workers before the morning peak fares. This time is now the dearest time to travel.
February 5, 2024
I think you are right to say much of the local freight infrastucture has been destroyed Cliff.
As to ‘speed’ I do remember when the fastest way to get urgent spare parts from a stockroom (in Reading) to Birmingham was to use the BR ‘Red Star’ service. It was fast and reliable, the only problem being finding a parking space at New Street. However, if companies like ‘Just Eat’ can deliver Hamburgers and Pizzas kitchen-to-door locally these days, why not a station-to-door parcel service? It might be lot more reliable than Evri (aka My Hermes).
Change the incentives with regard Rail versus Road frieght and someone will dream up a solution. Perhaps Parcel Force should should be thinking of new ways to use Travelling Post Offices?
February 5, 2024
Ian t
Yes I remember the Red Star service of decades ago, worked well then, no idea when or why it was stopped.
February 5, 2024
The Post Office (London) Underground Railway, or Mail Rail, transported mail under the streets of London from 1927 to 2003. The railway line was eventually closed in 2003 as mail began to be sorted outside of London, Royal Mail property was sold off, and people started sending packages rather than letters.
Mail is still transported by rail today – without any sorting staff on board.
February 5, 2024
Wokingham posted mail probably taken to SWINDON and then brought back for delivery in ….Wokingham.
February 5, 2024
MT – Thats to avoid ULEZ & LTN routes
February 5, 2024
+++
Agree.
Oh the crumbs that fell from the table over that little escapade and then later from one or other privatisation ( shares and take over bids and the like).
All I suppose squeezing out and trousering resources owned by the tax payer?
February 5, 2024
Too many line closures (to benefit the road haulage industry and road builders) have taken place for a comprehensive freight network to be realistic any more. Just another example of the self-destruct for short term gain policy that successive governments have followed enthusiastically.
February 5, 2024
How are you planning to get it from the rail terminal around the rest of the country? Horse and cart?
February 5, 2024
No, electric flying cars and later Captain Kirk transporters
February 5, 2024
It seems people want to take us back to the 1970s.
February 5, 2024
in many ways – yes please!
February 6, 2024
No thanks, working-class Dads working 60-70 hours per week, clothes and shoes, even for children so expensive you had to have Provi. loans to buy your uniform. White goods cost more than today. Cold houses with no upstairs heating, single glazing that was often frozen in winter, my aunts still had an outside toilet and no bathroom indoors. No technology, electricity strikes, armbands to school because of the smog. School dentists who filled teeth for fun. Long stays in hospital with 30 beds per ward for conditions done today by keyhole as an outpatient, worst maternity care resulting in more baby deaths, rubbish tv entertainment, Sundays where the only shop open was a garden centre, a lot more smoking indoors and in cars, no seatbelts or airbags, twin tubs and a full washing day. I’d take today over that.
February 5, 2024
The time of freedom
February 6, 2024
What freedom have you lost today that you had in the 1970s?
February 5, 2024
+1
February 5, 2024
Once upon a time much freight was distributed by the rail network, but then the unions began industrial action and made the service unreliable, so freight was switched to road – industrial action never closes them.
Why would distribution companies want to switch back to rail given the same politically motivated unions still hold sway?
I’m glad my commute to work doesn’t rely on the railway. By all accounts it’s unreliable even on a day when there are no strikes.
I guess the government must think of the rail network as being a necessity for national security, otherwise business sense would dictate another Beeching style rationalisation.
February 5, 2024
When you look at the logistics & costs of doing this with the usually road end journeys needed and thus transfers it rarely makes much sense. Where is does make sense in cost and convenience terms it is largely done already.
February 5, 2024
Sakara
Not enough track capacity and not enough marshalling yards or railheads in the right places, there used to be, but track ripped up over the decades, and houses and offices built on the space due to increasing population.
HS2 it was argued was supposed to release some of the original track bottlenecks, but we have all seen how that turned out.
February 5, 2024
In order to make attractive progress on winning freight traffic there might need closed hours to passenger use.
Starting at say 5am for 1 or 2 hours freight movement only. Then perhaps 11am to 1pm another freight only period.
This would reduce passenger trains and free up the track – meeting the need to unload drivers manning near empty stock outside of peak travel.
Not only depots would need establishing but loop tracks for parking freight allowing passenger trains to pass them.
February 5, 2024
I wonder if they could use driverless freight trains at night on the regular network of long-distance movement to the transport hubs in the North and Scotland from the Ports in the South and from the Northern ports East to the West coast?
February 5, 2024
Despite all the extra taxes on road freight, rail only competes in limited circumstances. Bulk delivery of power station fuels using automated loading and unloading is one that used to account for the largest slice of rail freight when we used coal. All the extra handling and marshaling yards required for container freight mean that the journey needs to be over about 350 miles to work out cheaper overall. The reduction in rail freight has freed up rail paths for passenger traffic, undermining the case for HS2 in the process.
Perhaps rail lines could be converted for use by automated trucks which would avoid the double handling costs and provide an environment without mixed traffic.
February 5, 2024
The railways are no exception. In many once state owned industries, privatisation has been an unmitigated disaster for their customers – the British public – who are forced to pay high bills for mediocre services. These monoplies are now owned by foreign infrastructure funds/pension funds/private equity firms who loaded them with debt when money was cheap. They pay colossal bonuses to their management and the £billions in dividends that they pay out distort the financial markets – and impoverish us all.
The water & sewage dumping industry is the worst example. The firms involved are so loaded with debt that they will shortly go bankrupt without government intervention. Their foreign owners refuse to pay for the upgrades necessary to build more reservoirs, fix their broken Victorian pipes and sewers and more treatment works. How long is it going to be before some cock-up occurs and the sewage overflows into the drinking water system? We could easily see the return of cholera here.
Send your suggestions on a postcard to Michael Howard, who organised this particular fiasco.
Reply What nonsense. Massive investment in big upgrade in London water/ sewage capacity underway
February 5, 2024
When the water companies were privatised, the shares should have been given free to the British customers, with the condition that they had to be passed on to the new homeowner or tenant when one left. After all, as British citizens it did belong to them.
However the Conservative government of the day wanted a bit extra cash to spend and waste, on top of the additional borrowing it took out year by year.
Perish the thought that the next generation should inherit anything of value. All they have is a massive pile of debt built up by borrow and waste governments.
February 5, 2024
Well if fault there is here it is the manner they were sold off and how they are regulated. Government regulators could have insisted on certain capital requirements and sensible performance standards and charges.
February 5, 2024
Reply to reply
Gee fanks ! Finally some investment in London – which will still not keep up with the Conservative fetish for mass immigration of 1 million goodness knows what coming in for 500,000 qualified people quitting Britain.
February 5, 2024
SG comments are sound. Cholera outbreak might be a bit of a stretch – but who knows?
First two paragraphs until ‘cholera’ are difficult to argue against.
February 5, 2024
I could definitely see the general public being softened up, in various ways, to use bottled water for drinking.
‘Not unusual in other countries’. ‘Population increase means safe tap water no longer possible’. ‘We never had safe tap water in the old days’.
Blah, blah, blah…
February 5, 2024
Disease ( and fire) have always been excellent methods of asset transfer.
This Supersh**tter has echoes of HS2 about it and I bet it is more about saving water to “save” the planet than anything else. ( At whose behest I wonder?)
Tons of “treated” sewage by the billion still being pumped into the Thames but every teeny drop of free water scooped up? Not to mention the utterly gruesome public spaces atop the various 60 odd metre deep pipes ( stink pipes?) Woke beyond wokery.
In any event the shareholders aren’t too happy about the vast levels of debt incurred.
And who pays…yep…the customers!
February 5, 2024
Many of the problems with water underinvestment are the consequences of adhering to EU Water Directives which are still entrenched in our laws.
February 5, 2024
Really? EU Water Directives are applied in the 27 EU countries with various levels of success but none as bad as in the UK. The UK adopted the EU Directive in 2003 as the Water Environment Regulation 2003. But it was repealed in 2017 at a time when Scotland and Northern Ireland started enacting their own regulations.
The present English regulation has kept the original EU concept of River Basin Management Planning Process within which private water companies run their business, officially supervised by OfWat (and the Environment Agency in case of pollution).
It would appear the main cause of problems is not the EU, nor privatisation per se, but a rather toothless monitoring by OfWat of these near-monopolies, which let most of the private water companies take large debts, pay sizeable dividends, and invest relatively little in further maintenance of the distribution network, development of water provision and waste management.
But what can the consumer expect when regularly people move from OfWat to heading a private company (Thames Water) or vice versa?
February 6, 2024
The Water Directives prioritise reducing water demand through increased prices and reduced investment, a programme which you point out had been followed by Ofwat. They also emphasise the environmental neglect pursued by the Environment Agency that results in flooding.
So yes, really.
February 6, 2024
@Reply
Not the best example at all – your massive investment in the London super sewer involves an equally massive 10% tax on all Thames Valley customers outside London who do not benefit at all from the service provided to London.
February 5, 2024
Deary me Rishi interview with piers Morgan is a complete car crash. This is a further disaster for the Conservative party.
February 5, 2024
Sounds like it from what I have heard so far – broadcast tonight. So no surprise here Sunak is a hopeless politician & totally out of touch with the people and reality. Even now Sunak is insisting (lying or totally deluded) about the Covid vaccines being “safe and effective”. The figures are very clear they are not remotely safe or even very effective. Absurd to coerce them into people with zero need for them.
We have been clear that the Horizon scandal is a terrible miscarriage of justice, and we are doing everything we can to make it right. To what the hon. Member was more broadly insinuating, let me be unequivocal from this Dispatch Box that covid vaccines are safe.
Rishi Sunak The Prime Minister, Leader of the Conservative Party
We have been clear that the Horizon scandal is a terrible miscarriage of justice, and we are doing everything we can to make it right. To what the hon. Member was more broadly insinuating, let me be unequivocal from this Dispatch Box that covid vaccines are safe.
Sunak should have said a terrible failure of government, the post office, the justice system, judges and ministers like the compromised dope Ed Davey. Not “insinuating” Sunak but correctly stating reality – they were not safe nor effective and should certainly never have been given to the young or people who had already had covid. See Bridgen;s bait and switch questions also.
February 5, 2024
8/10
Read around your subject.
February 5, 2024
You’re being generous
February 5, 2024
We should watch what LNER is doing to see what is wrong with the current model. Last year they removed return tickets on some of their routes so you had to get two singles. Now they will be trialling a system on some routes where there no cheap off peak tickets, only anytime, high price, or pre-booked advance tickets usable only on specific trains.
Railfuture points out how wrong this approach at sorting out the railways is:
https://www.railfuture.org.uk/Press-release-4th-February-2024
February 5, 2024
Indeed standard price tickets are a complete rip off – anytime return London to Manchester £369 for one person nearly £1 a miles. By car you can take up to seven people for about £100 all in and that will take you door to door without taxis and carry more luggage too. So 1/26th of the price per person. If trains are so energy efficient (they are not in practice) why are they so much more expensive?
Ticket restricted to a particular train are terrible too. What if your bus, tube, other train or fllght is delayed, your meeting goes on longer or you get a puncture on the way to the station?
February 5, 2024
‘ We need a new pattern of use geared to maximising use, increasing revenues and cutting subsidies.’
I agree with this. The infrastructure is already there after all.
It is more sensible than suggestions that rail be abandoned with a fresh round of Beeching-style closures, or that the rail be paved over for additional road space.
We are being forced away from individual motor cars anyway. So decent public transport must be available.
February 5, 2024
The latest target for ULEZ style pollution is now country roads and motorways. Rubber coming off tyres and ending up in rivers.
Even EVs will be banned eventually.
February 5, 2024
Paula
I see Paris has just voted to triple parking charges for vehicle weighing over 1600 KGs.
The resident population are excluded, it is for commuters and visitors only from reports so far.
Clearly they are working on the basis that the heavier the vehicle, the more general pollution, the more road wear, makes rather more sense than tailpipe emissions only.
Those simply travelling through Paris and other major cities need a Crit Air certificate, cost £4.00 for the lifetime of the vehicle, no matter what grade (based on tailpipe emissions), restrictions on entry days/hours for the most heavily polluting vehicles.
Unlike the UK the Emission zones, France have the same criteria Nationwide, which makes more sense.
February 6, 2024
I wondered if this is to exclude Tesla vehicles in preference to French and EU EVs although it would also exclude Citroen DS7 and C5s.
February 5, 2024
Crica 30% more rubber comes of EV cars per mile as 30% heavier! They save no CO2 either with full accounting including the build they cause rather more.
February 5, 2024
Amd with the higher torque of EV compared to most cars there is likely to be more tyre wear on acceleration, and braking as the vehicle is heavier.
February 5, 2024
Its net-zero that needs to be banned.
A friends neighbour has been in the same house for forty years and it belongs to a housing association, they’re currently in the process of replacing his entire tiled roof as part of there net-zero strategy …there was nothing wrong with the roof and he didn’t request any repairs, …upon further investigation he showed us a letter saying that they’d received a grant from government to replace ‘older’ roofs
MADNESS
February 5, 2024
Bit like the Grant’s given via our taxes to help anti deport illegal migrants charities. They want mass legal and illegal immigrants and pretend to want to stop/reduce it. They could stop the boats tomorrow with a same day return policy. They just don’t want to.
February 5, 2024
great! how do I apply for a complete replacement roof being 35 years old sitting on a 100 year old house?
February 6, 2024
You’re only entitled if you don’t need or want a new roof ….appply c/o tory Hq
February 6, 2024
Replace them with solar panels?
February 5, 2024
All to stop Australia going under water ….what a farce
February 5, 2024
More inventive pricing enabled by existing technology could increase passengers.
What’s the cost to the train company of one extra seated passenger, say from Southampton to Portsmouth? Web-site resources for ticket purchase. Possibly a slight slow-down in boarding and alighting. Fuel for the extra weight is probably negligible. Ticket-inspector time. Say 20p, being generous?
Why aren’t the seats auctioned off for a profit on the 20p? If I want to know I’ve a seat leaving at a ‘rush hour’ time two weeks from now then I pay a high price. But if I wait till the day and don’t mind if it’s the 10:15 or 11:15 then I can pay less though the risk of not getting a ticket rises. Cheaper still, I can get to the station and then see what’s on offer, paying a couple of quid for the train arriving in ten minutes. I wouldn’t even need a destination in mind. The app could order ‘mystery tours’ by time first, then location.
Would commuters switch to all standing on the platform, ticket-less, with a flurry of purchasing as prices start low but then quickly rise as seats sell and the next train isn’t for an hour? I doubt it, so the bulk of existing high-price sales are safe. But it could well attract new passengers; those who learn the 14:00 is always three-quarters empty so prices are minimal five minutes before.
February 5, 2024
Users dictate what they buy.
Services can’t sell if they don’t attract.
Your suggestions are attractive, Ralph.
February 5, 2024
and why is a seat cheaper if you buy it a month early …..its the same seat with the same on-costs
February 7, 2024
Hi Glen, Because I value not just being railroaded from A to B but the certainty of when it will happen so pay more. Similarly, a family of five might want to know they’ve a clutch of seats in one spot because of young children. Value is subjective and decided by the buyer.
The value of a kettle to put on the hob is not the sum of its materials, manufacture, and transport to the shop but how much of one good, money, I wish to exchange for another, the kettle. If frequent net-zero power cuts start today, the kettle will rise in value as demand increases. Shops should whack the price up so those who truly value it buy the few to hand. Shops willing to pay more for new stock will in turn attract manufacturers to switch from posh coffee machines to old kettle designs. This is the price signal which subsidy and monetary inflation corrupts.
That value is subjective was a key insight of Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian school of economics. It is a commonsense approach to economics which works from the bottom up, taking the acts of an individual and their effect. In contrast, the Keynesian school is top down: Governments and central banks believe they can know enough about the minutiae of the economy from lagging data to decide which big, coarse levers to pull.
Menger at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Menger
Cato Institute’s Introduction to Austrian Economics, a short book of small pages: https://cdn.cato.org/libertarianismdotorg/books/AustrianEconomics.pdf
February 5, 2024
Did EU rules indeed prevent the government from implementing your proposed structure? How much did this influence the committee’s decision?
February 5, 2024
Needless to say the Germans held the train and track together by means of an overarching holding company. Sadly John Major and his committees did not come up with that. Instead we got a monstrous fragmentation of every component of British Rail into private profit centres with massive subsidies being needed to prop up Railtrack which had to buy in all the services which had previously been in-house.
February 5, 2024
“The railway has lost its big five day a week commuting business.”
No, it didn’t lose that business. The idiotic Not-a-Conservative-Government, ably assisted by the other members of the Westminster Uni-Party, destroyed it for them ….. by over-reacting to a virus which had already been identified as LOW CONSEQUENCE with low mortality rates, even in the most vulnerable group (the very elderly/frail) who wouldn’t have been commuting anyway!
Well done Tories: destroy the railway’s main revenue-generator and then complain that the railways are badly run and haven’t got a viable business model.
February 5, 2024
What is meant by an average fare: price per passenger ticket?
So if you encourage more passengers to undertake shorter journeys, the average fare goes down while if you encourage passengers to undertake longer journeys the average price goes up? And if ticket pricing encourages passengers to buy several tickets to cover a single journey, average ticket pricing comes down… I don’t see that as being a very useful statistic.
February 5, 2024
Split ticketing. Who would have imagined the public would have to resort to such things to get the cheapest fares?
February 5, 2024
I will always travel by petrol car avoiding London at every opportunity
February 5, 2024
Yesterday Sir John you referred to ‘leaves on the line’. Today you mention management.
In my view a courageous programme should be introduced to fell millions of trees. Courageous because eco-fanatics will need to be confronted. Too many are far too close the track. No trees should have trunks within 20 metres. Also there have been cases lately when a bit of wind has blown something over onto the track – even small trees. Poor maintenance.
February 5, 2024
There have been large scale tree removal exercises. Reading to Bracknell for instance – bare trackside.
February 5, 2024
Good news, thanks, didn’t know that.
February 5, 2024
and on GWR electrified the trees were taken down anywhere near track.
February 5, 2024
When you describe your preferred model of rail ownership could you tell us which places in the world have followed your approach successfully ? Not knowing what you’ll suggest but the regional track+trains model in Japan has been somewhat successful I suppose but not without risk (operators moving mostly into real estate speculation) and failures needing government bail-outs, so the apparently small benefits of following their approach seem unlikely to justify the costs of switching to it. Other than Japan I’m not sure any even vaguely similar country to UK has privatised rail, and there is obviously a reason for that which the UK would be unwise to ignore.
February 5, 2024
Nationalisation be it railways or any other service business is a specifically British problem. Spain in my experience ran a clean , on time, yob free, inexpensive service I was delighted to use for a parking free day out in Valencia. From memory it cost about €6.50 return for a 45 minute journey each way. Japan ran a mixture of private and national railways. Super clean, comprehensive hostess trolley constantly on hand, plus or minus 10 seconds on time or a driver appology. I cannot comment on the cost because I never paid.
The british mindset seems impossible to gear to serving others, I suspect we consider it demeening. Yob culture is rife and can spring up anywhere at any time, so best isolate yourself from it. Even MPs are wearing stab vests and accompany themselves with security. I cannot envisage the problems I might have randomly sat opposite an MP on a train.
A further problem is that the railway emplyees, via their unions, see fit to weaponise their monopoly against government they choose not to like or technological progress. Technology should be fit to run trains driverless except in emergency situations. Commercial aircraft are largely run on auto pilot. Trains do not have to perform cross wind landings so could be run from command centres, train traffic for want of a better title.
Our railways have to adjust to current traffic patterns and be run for the sole benefit of the paying passenger, at attractive prices and yob free. Though I freely admitt we do not have, and do not apply the rssources to end yob culture in our society at large. Railways are but a symptom of infrastructure decline and departure in the UK.
February 5, 2024
Your party needs to make a strong case for NOT nationalising the railways, with that effort targeting the minds of those voters too young to remember how awful BR was. But the Conservatives seem to have given up – not even bothering to make a contest of the Wellingborough by-election.
February 6, 2024
What are you predicting for Wellingborough, a split right-wing vote (Reform/Tory), letting Labour through for the win? It might be a wake-up call.
February 5, 2024
One additional revenue stream for Railtrack would be to recycle the steel track that lies by the railways following track replacement works. There must be millions of tons of it.
February 5, 2024
It used to be in place for dealing with possible cracked rail – quite a challenge bringing in long rail from miles and miles away.
February 5, 2024
That’s interesting and a good tick for recycling.
February 5, 2024
Railways should be run commercially according to demand, with moderate loan subsidy to assist opportunity for high efficiency. Safety needs to be an entirely separate authority, pulling against danger to the optimum. Contracts should be won or lost according to sustained performance. If travellers decide rail is their best option on speed, safety, comfort and cost, they will pay and board.
February 5, 2024
You do realise you’re all going to be out of office forever in a few weeks, don’t you ?
Immigration has killed the Conservative Party.
You failed in your most basic duty to your voters – having been told time and time again that you were failing – yet have the nerve to tell other people how they should be doing their jobs.
14 years. For what ? Your pensions ???
February 5, 2024
Well put, Paula.
Even if it is a bit more than few weeks, it’ll be long overdue. This burnt-out party is running a clapped-out government that the country will be well rid of. Starmer in power is not going to be nice, but it will at least give whatever remains of the Tories a chance to offer a different brand of politics, as they did in the late 70s.
February 5, 2024
Some of them expect to be richly rewarded by the people pulling the strings … or shuffled into the House of Frauds.
February 5, 2024
Why should rail travel be subsidised? Because it is in everyone’s interest that as many people as possible travel by public transport rather than driving and parking more private cars.
February 5, 2024
@Beresford
Totally agree.
I may be of Conservative mindset, however I’ve never agreed with Conservative transport policy generally.
It just seems to be to run down services and charge a higher price for it.
The only good thing they have really done is the £2 bus fare.
February 5, 2024
beresford
That sounds fine until you find yourself on a train late at night, when a load of drunks get on !
Find yourself being abused, beaten up, or robbed, but no worry they have it on cctv !
Not had that experience myself, but come close to it a few years ago.
February 5, 2024
Last 2 trains out from Paddington or Waterloo to be avoided if at all possible, for reasons above.
February 5, 2024
No doubt the transport police will supply an incident number
February 6, 2024
I’ve had a couple of experiences like that, one on a train back from London to Crewe that was going on to Liverpool with lots of drunk men thinking they were being funny, it was two hours of hell, the train staff did nothing to stop them.
Another rather large lady stood right in front of me on the tube and turned her back to me with her noise-cancelling headphones on. When my stop came, I tried to stand but couldn’t, I called to her, no response, so I tapped her she started screaming that I was robbing her and had pickpocketed her, I got trapped until the next stop, I took my coat off, it was an awful experience, I asked her to check her pockets, everyone all around just put their heads down, my husband who had been stood by the door had to get back on the carriage and come over to help me.
February 5, 2024
Indeed. One fundamental question to be asked and answered is whether the purpose of railways is to be an enabler of economic activity (a means of allowing people and goods to get from one place to another), and thus merits investment from government as the roads do, or an economic activity in its own right intended to deliver a profit.
February 6, 2024
Peter, don’t roads pay for themselves with all the taxes, ved, fines for speeding, I thought I read they did and contributed extra to the exchequer.
February 5, 2024
The government have announced that the odious Electricity Generator Levy will not apply to new renewables projects. Whilst the industry has welcomed this, the government should go futher and scrap this retrograde tax on renewable energy completely. Companies who built onshore solar parks and windfarms financed them by borrowing from the City capital market using revolving credit facilities and are now struggling with high interest rates on their loans.
The EGL was imposed on the sector following relentless and prolonged lobbying by the fossil fuel industry during the energy price crisis last winter. This tax has killed further investment in more N Sea windfarms and onshure solar parks, resulting in no bids in the last renewables auction, for the first time since 2011.
February 5, 2024
The circumstances of renewables generators vary greatly. There are tidal stream operations getting as much as £325/MWh and floating offshore wind on £230/MWh in subsidy on top of market prices, CFDs paying £209/MWh, and operators whose CFD is priced below both the market prices (currently around £70-80/MWh) and a level which would recover their costs who have therefore opted for market prices and curtailment revenue as a better bet. Meanwhile, the gas producer is getting less than £30/MWh for their gas. So we have renewables costing more than 9 times a much as gas which you think should not be taxed. Actually, at present market prices they aren’t being taxed, as their subsidies are all protected from tax, and the tax only kicks in when the ordinary market price is above £75/MWh. But the gas producer is being taxed because there is no price floor below which tax doesn’t apply.
I’d trade cancelling taxes on renewables for cancelling subsidies. Perhaps we’d then see some more rational investment decisions.
February 5, 2024
@Mark
You persist in claiming that renewable energy producers are subsidised, which is one of your favourite lies. About 90% of the renewable energy produced here is under the CFD scheme from earlier years. Many early schemes are guaranteed a price of only £35/MWh. If the spot electricity price is higher than this, the Treasury takes the difference. THERE IS NO SUBSIDY INVOLVED. The average spot price so far in February is £67.60 MW/h. The Treasury is raking in the difference PLUS the EGL.
In September 2022 the spot price was £580.55 MW/h, due to the QUADRUPLING of the gas price by the oil majors. The Treasury took so much back from the renewables CFD scheme that Hunt was able to cut national insurance in last years budget.
February 6, 2024
Renewables are heavily subsidised, both in obvious ways via ROCs and CFDs and REGOs, and in less obvious ways such as not having to pay the costs of their remote connections, extra tariffs on competing generators, preferential grid access, curtailment compensation etc.
The latest rolling year for which full detail on ROCs is available runs to September,
totalling some 77.8TWh of production, paid an average of 1.363 ROCs/MWh, worth around £89/MWh of pure subsidy. The total CFD based generation over the same period was 18.4TWh at an average strike price of £164.75/MWh, a subsidy premium of £56.30/MWh to its market value of £108.45/MWh at day ahead prices. The weighted average subsidy is £82.75/MWh, none of which is subject to EGL, and all CFD income is entirely exempt. Since EGL only applies to average revenue excluding ROCs in excess of £75/MWh, it is looking unlikely that many renewables projects will have any liability to it at all, with normal market prices being at lower levels.
February 5, 2024
I should point out that the Generator Levy had no effect on bids for the CFD auction, since CFDs are exempt from the tax – and under AR5 there was no option to bypass the CFD in favour of market prices. Simply, the government set the maximum bid prices far too low, and has subsequently had to revise them upwards very substantially for AR6, with a side offering of extra money for meeting certain supply chain targets. I note they have also nudged upwards planned capacity procurement under the Capacity Market auction taking place shortly in a sign that they are beginning to recognise the looming problems with a shortage of dispatchable capacity.
Meanwhile Claire Coutinho visited Brussels today to tell the French and Belgians (but apparently not the Spanish) that they should cut imports of Russian LNG. Given that we found ourselves having to import from as far away as Peru last year through adhering to sanctions, and the Biden is threatening to refuse LNG export licences I think she is taking the wrong approach. To be able to forego Russian LNG there needs to be increased gas supply. She should be promoting UK gas E&P investment, and encouraging further investment in friendly countries to create a competitive market for supply, and dissuading the US from cutting exports. Trying to get LNG supplies re-routed to avoid buying from Russia is an expensive exercise that will see Russia transshipping LNG for delivery to e.g. China, while Europe has to buy in long haul supply – all of which increases demand for and cost of shipping, driving up prices. You hope that was not her intention.
February 6, 2024
Mark & SG
What you both describe is the basis of all of our problems, everything but everything is now far too complicated, so the true cost of anything is hidden, and often difficult to fathom.
A whole range of differing Subsidies, Grants, Taxes, VAT, Bonuses, Fines, incentives, penalties has clouded the Market so completely and extensively, that the whole purpose of the original plan and desire is lost.
It used to be simple, get it out of the ground or harvest it from natural resources, and sell it into the market to whoever would buy it, so bloody simple.
Instead we now have the farce of goal posts and costs changing at will, by politicians to try and suit their present fantasy and lack of knowledge.
February 5, 2024
The system privatised was never going to work as you suggest Sir J. We out here in the real world could see it, but not the ‘organisers’. The fact that it was decided by a committee of amateurs is no surprise. Most of our country seems to be run this way now. Fixed routes on fixed timetable will never work except for commuter traffic and of course there is the problem of getting to the stations, expensive buses (if they run), car parks either full or horrendously expensive which has to be factored into the ticket cost, as well as the time taken with the journey each end, assuming the trains run on time or at all. Road is much more flexible, cheaper and quicker. Rail is a 19th century solution to a 21st century problem. It doesn’t work, except for heavy industry and bulk loads and I don’t think there is a railway anywhere in the world which makes a profit and gives value for money.
February 5, 2024
Sir John
You say – “All too often the largely nationalised railway lets us down”. Our, your local train operator is South West Trains a privately run franchise – so it is not nationalised.
If the system is failing the consumer, it is the Government Franchise Contract that is at fault. As with most of the scenarios you present us with the situation is very straight forward, this Conservative Government refuses to ‘manage’
February 5, 2024
They real issue we should all have is that what is termed a ‘subsidy’(it is never a Government subsidy) all to often is a Government give away of our money. Once Government removes money from our pockets to hand to someone else, they the Government have assumed responsibility to ensure that taxpayers see a return – the Government becomes the de-facto ‘Management’, the ones responsible.
To many weak decisions being hidden, and the buck being passed
February 5, 2024
The Government’s ability to manage its affairs is at an all time low . I do not see the necessary skills and experience in the Front Bench to effect the change that is required to put things back into a sensible condition and I would not trust Labour one inch if they took over . What is the solution ?. Effective talent must be a requirement in all MPs otherwise elections are a waste of time .
February 5, 2024
From the MsM – the usual nonsense
“Hunt urged to slash VAT on EV purchases in upcoming Budget”
Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). The voice of the importers of foreign produced EVs. Given that one man’s tax cut is another’s increase. What is being asked of Government is to punish UK producers and subsidy’s the foreign producer.
This Conservative Government is so would-up in the Socialist propaganda of NetZero, that they have demonstrated regularly that the death of the UK is their aim. They no longer understand their own purpose.
The railways, energy supply, the water companies, the NHS and many more all have a common thread this Conservative Government and a failing HoC is refusing to get a grip and do the job they have been empowered and paid for.
February 5, 2024
Another fudge on the way
“Jeremy Hunt has opened the door to scrapping the controversial tourist tax amid pressure from business leaders and Conservative MPs.”
The ask is that goods imported into the UK from Foreign producers are relieved of having to pay the tax that the rest of us get saddled with
controversial tourist tax? In whose mind? It is not a tax on tourists!
‘one man’s tax cut is another’s increase’
The only way this would should be palatable to the UK taxpayer was if there were any exemptions it was restricted to UK only Produced products.
The again this is the Sunak/Hunt duo, sponsoring all foreign entities before the UK is their priority.
February 5, 2024
Why should a good train company want to operate in the UK with the constant state manipulation. The subsidised bus fares capped at 2 pound has taken a lot of passengers off the train. Why should anyone pay train fare for a journey like Portsmouth to Southampton when it’s only 2 quid on the bus.
February 5, 2024
“Why do taxpayers have to pay for people often with more income and leisure time than them to get cheap tickets?”
Why do taxpayers have to ‘subsidise’ bone idle people to sit around all day doing nothing?
Why do taxpayers have to ‘subsidise’ millions every day for Hotel accommodation for illegal migrants?
Why do taxpayers have to ‘subsidise’ the staged closure of the Tata Steel plant in Wales, with £500m of our cash?
Why do taxpayers have to ‘subsidise’ the green agenda?
The list could go on..
Sorry, your argument does not stack up, when this Government wastes far, far more money ‘subsiding’ far less worthy causes than what the railways receive every year.
Subsidising the Railways provides greater public benefit, more so than all of the things listed in the paragraph above. Ensuring we do not have to ensure disastrous ‘Beeching style’ cuts to routes and services in the 21st Century.
I’m pretty certain you would be up in arms if Wokingham was served once every two hours with trains to Reading, London Waterloo, Guildford and Gatwick. That is what would ultimately happen if subsidies were cut.
It is high time this Conservative Government stopped ‘subsiding’ un-deserved causes, thus allowing more money to be available to fund more deserving causes.
February 5, 2024
If our politicians want to learn how a rail network is run efficiently, they’d better fly over to Tokyo. And take the Trade Union leaders with them.
February 5, 2024
I can just imagine the Tannoy at Reading or Waterloo announcing their humble apologies for each arrival being xx minutes late, when in Tokyo it would almost be a disembowelment offence for 1 minute.
February 5, 2024
There are some good train crew around though. I was on the Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh service when it came across a big tree blocking the rail. The crew got out and moved it by hand themselves. No messing around waiting hours for rescue, they just got on and did it. People like that deserve medals.
February 5, 2024
Rail fares in the UK are generally higher than those in other European countries.
How much more expensive does this Government want prices to get?
Whilst I won’t argue against SWR prices at the weekend (Earley to Bracknell for £2.95 return, Earley to Guildford for £6.25 return, Earley to London Waterloo for £11.85), prices during the week and longer distance can quite frankly verge into the ridiculous.
Some good prices were available during the recent GWR January and ‘Great British Rail’ sale promotions. In my mind these prices should be the regular prices, to encourage people to use public transport. More so on the less popular routes that could do with the extra patronage.
February 5, 2024
Travel by train is now like an obstacle course unless you are going to London from the North or Scotland to Plymouth. To get from say Liverpool to Birmingham yesterday, Sunday you had to go to Crewe (a windswept canopy 100+ years old hub) and hope to get a late non-cancelled main line train). Arriving late at B’ham joining the rare packed Edinburgh to Plymouth train with standing passengers room only my wife in her late 70s with a heavy backpack to minimise luggage was grateful for small mercies for it showing up. 40 minutes later it arrived on time at Cheltenham where I drove 30 miles from Wiltshire as there was only a bus laid on for Kemble that would have delayed even more and arriving in darkness with no Station Master there.
Without checking the various live train websites it would be mission impossible.
The rail network management is really struggling to wrestle with not just maintenance but bedevilled by the strong Union barons who expect Labour to cave in to their demands.
February 5, 2024
It’s well past the time employers sacked all the strikers.
February 6, 2024
Also, not all capitalists are the same. You get lazy capitalists (but who build up protection rings / monopolies around them so they can make money in a lazy way similar to lazy socialists in the public sector – with similar dire outcomes for the consumer / tax-payer) and hard-working capitalists such as Michael O’Leary (who also pays all his taxes in his homeland). So we need to be careful about putting capitalism on a pedestal (whilst of course certain industries have to be fully in the private sector i.e. the aviation).
February 6, 2024
(And the lazy / greedy bankers who the tax payer had to bail out – and of course there are lots of hard-working / fair-minded bankers too who aren’t like that at all).