It’s the Bank holiday week-end. Many people want to travel to be with family or friends. Others want to take a short break at a UK holiday destination, giving some work to our hotels, visitor attractions and restaurants. An effectively nationalised railway which is heavily loss making has an opportunity to provide us with a great public service. It could take some of the strain off the roads. It could earn some much needed extra revenue to offset some of the huge losses it is racking up and expensing to the taxpayer.
Instead the papers and media report a long list of closed lines and services. Maybe when the railway earned most of its non subsidy money from fleecing commuters for the their five days a week service it made sense to do maintenance at Bank holidays when the commuters did not need the travel. Haven’t the railways noticed the five day a week commuting model is broken. We have witnessed the post covid revolt of the commuter, with so many agreeing with their employers far fewer days in the office to escape the high costs and poor service of their past railway experience. Surely the railway bosses should be scouring the booking patterns for holidays, special events, sporting activities and the rest to see how they can capture more of the leisure and pleasure market. That means not only keeping open the full range of lines for a busy Bank holiday but also flexing the pattern of services to attract more of the travelling public. The A 303, the M5 , the M6 , the M25 and all the other overloaded holiday roads need this help from this expensive set of great straight routes spanning the country and giving traffic free access to all our main cities and tourist destinations.
The largely nationalised railway is another example of huge sums of public money and public sector power being deployed by so called independent bodies. Ministers need to intervene more when so much public money and the public interest is at stake. If the railway management will not serve the railway demand when it is there they need to be told to do so or changed for those who will. We need business people guiding the railway and helping the Ministers who want to grow the business and make sensible offers to people who do not want to sit in endless traffic jams if there is something better on offer. A big sporting or cultural event should be a business opportunity, not a reason to ration or even close the relevant station for fear of too many people.
April 16, 2022
Well like so many organisation (the NHS the largest and most appalling example) they are not run for customers but for staff, government grant farmers and vested interests sometimes corrupt ones.
Why too can you drive seven people London to say Manchester (and this door to door) for about 1/20 of the cost of sending them (and not door to door) by train? I thought the government claimed trains were so wonderfully energy and otherwise efficient?
April 16, 2022
Like all public services they are run entirely for the benefit of the employees.
Until there is so.w competition or profit related incentives they will continue as now.
It’s only taxpayers money is their mantra.
April 16, 2022
How come these same public services in Italy, France etc. don’t have these problems to anything like this extent?
April 16, 2022
We need to sack the British Managers next week and sort this out, they are pathetic they have had two years when all maintenance could have been organised because of repeated lockdowns. It is a pathetic failure and any proper business would be bankrupt with decisions like this.
April 16, 2022
Much the same as our local council who have managed to keep our open-air swimming pool closed for several summers as they only seem to realise in March or April that it needs serious repairs, when it’s been closed since September, if it was open at all.
April 19, 2022
I’ve worked with them, during a period when one of the companies was losing a licence for lack of performance. The managerial staff were not upset at all. No one was being made redundant, they were simply changing the signs on the door to match the company taking over, which was literally the two floors below them and owned by the same overall group.
With no consequences to failure, why should they improve?
April 16, 2022
NLH, the reason is that the ex dictatorships are still benefiting from what the dictators did re transport. Our democracy went over to cars in the fifties because the public wanted that. Some of us wish that were not the case but we are a minority.
Enoch said, “Does every generation have to learn again the lesson that there are more important things than that the trains run on time?” The Swiss were the exception on the Continent because of their weather and topography.
April 16, 2022
Because the public wanted that or because the public were told they wanted that? I’m thinking of the Beeching destruction which was carried out on none profitable lines.
April 18, 2022
John Hatfield: the public got off the trains and buses and into their cars. No-one told them to. The few who wanted public transport were left with near empty trains and buses which the authorities of those days decided by and large not to charge up to the motorists. Beeching was given a brief by that government and had to carry it out. It wasn’t that he wanted to.
April 16, 2022
Please tell us why.
April 16, 2022
NLH – a good question, as I don’t know the answer and would like to know, but JR obviously doesn’t and doesn’t admit it. What MPs don’t know or can’t or won’t say is more revealing than what the little they do know.
April 16, 2022
Then it would be a very good idea for UK rail executives to look at a system that is working well and learn something from it, wouldn’t it?
Could do the same with the NHS.
April 16, 2022
I’m sure it is all part of the current Tory sickness.
April 16, 2022
Ian,
The govt encouraged small energy companies to lower prices. Govt interfered forced them to take the hit from their covid lockdown now charge ha an extra stealth tax through standing charges while lying/deceiving the public energy price hikes are all about global shitshat. The govt is forcing the taxpayer to pay for the losses of private companies, like it did with banks, because of govt policy!! Then to add insult not declaring why standing charges have doubled and almost trebelled!
So our energy prices have hidden govt green tax, VAT, and now hidden standing charge tax. Three taxes on the same item!
Govt currently profiteering from car fuel. Fuel duty and VAT both equate to about 60% of filling up your car.
To increase the price of food govt has got rid of red diesel! Why? Virtue signalling green crap to make us all poorer. This is a left wing govt crisis we need to rid ourselves from. We cannot afford Johnson and his party in govt. the red diesel tax hike for farmers escaped JRs blog of we need more.
Today JR forgets Villiers wasting ÂŁ40 million without censor or sanction. The same for Shapps wasting our taxes. Long haul flight taxes etc. how much are the bosses raking in? One on over ÂŁ600,000! If this is another Tory tax black hole exists now what about HS2!
April 16, 2022
The government can load any costs it wants to on to the railways. Putting up electrification gantries which lay redundant for years (or for ever!) adds to costs. Depreciation strategies can be altered to create gains or losses at will. So equally the pricing strategy is pretty random. For all the hot air about not wanting folk to drive around in cars, there’s no encouragement not to by pricing long rail trips low. Like the NHS or education, it’s more a quasi-monopoly where the only other option is to take matters in hand yourself.
April 16, 2022
Indeed then they cancel most of the services when people want to travel at Christmas, Easter, Sundays and bank holiday weekends as it suits the staff that way.
April 16, 2022
Dear SM–Except that, re the NHS, as I understand matters there is literally nowhere else in the world that thinks”free at the point of use” is even possible, never mind whether it is a good idea. A small minimum charge would have an enormously beneficial effect.
April 16, 2022
and this governments solution – HS2 with Wind-turbines
April 16, 2022
Most of the cost problems are with the train leasing contracts which are extortionate.
April 16, 2022
Dear 37/6– Is nobody going to say a word in favour of the Railways? I don’t think anybody including Sir John has given the time of day to the idea that closures at special weekends, while not that much fun of course, are better by far than during the week when most people, largely commuters, travel by rail. Maybe not many have lived in America where there are few railways left and those a joke (“bad rails”). Indianapolis (former) station was the saddest place on earth as I have personally experienced. The ‘bad rails’ comment (from the Ticket Collector) comes from (just so I could say I had done it) Chicago to Detroit at what seemed like walking pace.
Reply In its last reported year Network Rail showed passenger journeys down by more than three quarters and freight down by a little under 10 %. They have not won much of their commuter business back so need to generate new markets to offset the huge losses.
April 16, 2022
Reply to reply.
There is no ‘winning back’ commuter services when most of the government employees refuse to go back to work and our PM would find it easier to start World War Three with Vladimir Putin than take on our own civil service.
There are also many other office workers who have defaulted to a three-day-week (because it’s too dangerous), yet want to crowd onto trains and roads on bank holidays.
The railways are dead without subsidy now and it doesn’t matter what they do. So is a lot of British business (which is actually being taxed to death.)
The national Covid panic by ours and all Western governments has led to a bank holiday weekend being a better source of revenue than an ordinary business day, which is not saying much.
Some of us did try to say that lockdowns were an existential threat to our economies, our civic infrastructure and our lives.
There is NO extra business that can replace what the railways have lost, let alone cover the gargantuan investments that had been made based on forecasts of exponential commuter growth.
12 years of Tory rule has been an unmitigated disaster.
April 17, 2022
PS
The day ‘BR Engineering’ admits that bank holidays are more important than business days is the day that it should give up all but repair works on the railways.
It means that the railways are well and truly obsolete.
April 16, 2022
Andrew Orlowski is spot on today in the Telegraph.
âThe great hydrogen swindle â âgreenâ gas is not what it seemsââŠ. âUsing hydrogen remains the worst way of doing almost anything.â and prohibitively expensive and energy wasteful too.
April 16, 2022
Dear Lifelogic–Pure hyperbole in the Telegraph. Hydrogen does work is what’s important.
April 17, 2022
I think the article is accurate: hydrogen is expensive and inefficient and difficult to work with, incurring safety risks. I’ve spent quite a bit of time evaluating various parts of the hydrogen chain, the different technologies for making it, storage and transport issues, and round trip efficiency on re-use. It’s a Heath Robinson solution.
April 17, 2022
Well yes it can work as a very expensive and extremely inefficient and energy wasteful battery. We have no Hydrogen mines. Outside a few very special situations it is rather pointless.
April 16, 2022
The âEffectively nationalisedâ statement is appearing on here again.
Look at it from the franchisees point of view. They will keep on taking the government subsidies and doing what they can to maximise profit and minimise cost. They are not really owners and they donât control the infrastructure. They donât really care about the long term. That is the governmentâs job.
If things donât go to their liking they will not renew the franchise like Arriva in Wales. If they do not perform they may have to be kicked off the job.
So it is not really effectively nationalised. It is ineffectively reorganised in the hope that government will not lose too much face for pushing the privatisation mantra a step too far and being unwilling to admit it.
Meanwhile foreign railways benefit from profits made in the U.K. by their firms dabbling in our national transport service.
April 16, 2022
Exactly.
April 16, 2022
We agree!
April 16, 2022
+1, Incredible that Peter here has a clearer vision than a MP of 35 years does on the problem.
April 16, 2022
hefner – yes that says it all.
April 16, 2022
The Covid has certainly highlighted the failed models of infrastructure privatisation. It is similar across Europe, but generally to a lesser extent due to simpler structures and state ownership levels. Half of the French TGV don’t make a profit in themselves, but they are considered to add net value to the French socio-economic model GDP.
“Passengers contributed ÂŁ1.8 billion of fares income in 2020-21, an ÂŁ8.6 billion decrease from 2019-20. A total of 388 million passenger journeys were taken in 2020-21, which was 77.7% lower than in 2019-20.”
SNCF passenger division was 28% lower.)
“Governments contributed ÂŁ16.9 billion to the day-to-day operations of the railway in Great Britain in 2020-21, an annual increase of ÂŁ10.4 billion. Funding for train operators was ÂŁ10.2 billion, an increase of ÂŁ9.0 billion and funding for Network Rail and Core Valley Lines was ÂŁ6.6 billion, an increase of ÂŁ1.4 billion.” https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/media/2036/rail-industry-finance-uk-statistical-release-2020-21.pdf
April 16, 2022
The franchisees do indeed aim to maximize profits within the constraints of their franchise terms laid down by the Office of Rail Regulation, a government quango. They are constrained by the access to track and stations granted to them by agreements with Network Rail, a wholly nationalised body, who are also regulated by the ORR. The licence granted to Network Rail sets out the terms under which engineering works are scheduled and carried out, and establishes them as the timetable arbiters.
https://www.orr.gov.uk/monitoring-regulation/rail/networks/network-rail/network-licence
If things are to change, it is those terms that must be changed, or alternatively, franchise holders should become network co-owners with direct representation in how the network is run.
April 16, 2022
Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph today:-
âThe Bank of England is running out of time to undo its terrible mistakes and avoid recession
Mark Carney, the former governor, left the economy in a pitifully vulnerable stateâ
Indeed and now the dire Carney has gone on to do ever more damage in âgreenâ finance. Andrew (39% personal overdrafts for all) Bailey is absolutely appalling and inept too.
April 16, 2022
Oh, we’re going into recession this year, you can count on it. The government knows money printing causes inflation, which will be terrible, it’s in the text books. We have moribund State Owned Industries that should be let go and we have a worldwide scare of man-made global warming . The reason, simply, there are too many mouths to feed.
April 16, 2022
Peter Wood – ‘The reason, simply, there are too many mouths to feed.’ Quite right, nature/environment doesn’t permit it.
April 16, 2022
The Tories have been in for twelve – yes twelve – years now.
This buck-passing is reaching surreal levels.
April 16, 2022
I agree – we expect governments to find solutions and not to engage in the blame games
April 16, 2022
the buck-passing is NOT surreal – it is REAL.
April 16, 2022
Carney was and is grossly over-rated
April 16, 2022
Shouldnât have allowed non-dom Carney to have the job in the first place. Bailey was such a catastrophic failure at the FCA it defies belief the Conservatives thought him suitable for the BoE job.
April 16, 2022
Mark Carney left the BoE in March 2020, just before the first lockdown. Has Covid had no impact on the country? Did Juliet Samuel really not realise that? Is LL who advertises JSâs column here not aware of what has happened in the last two years?
Reply Carney gave us the doom laden wrong forecasts of the economy if we voted out and if we left the EU.He repeatedly misled us re interest rates and printed a load of money
April 16, 2022
Reply to reply: A forecast is a forecast is a forecast, and not what actually happened in the economy. If the various Chancellors have not been able to âpilot the economyâ properly since mid-2016, it is a bit rich of MPs to say that all that is wrong has come from wrong forecasts. Even with wrong forecasts from Carneyâs BoE, it is difficult to accept that what happened in the following two years was only because of Carney. Have the various Chancellors had no influence on what was happening? And is nothing due to how the economy was handled during the pandemic?
Your statement is of the same order as some from commenters saying that the present situation still mainly reflect what had happened before 2010. No influence from the various Governments since then?
It is not as if the UK had been the only country using QE.
You are the one who never produces any forecast, only comments after the facts, or if before âthe factsâ generalities so vague as to be of no use.
There is a limit to what common people like me can accept from clearly ideological statements as yours. If that is what one of the cleverest MPs in Parliament can produce, I despair.
Reply I suggest you use other sites. You clearly scorn this one. I rebutted the Remain Bank forecasts at the time and was proved right. The Bank is primarily responsible for inflation where they failed miserably and predictably last year and this.
April 16, 2022
other blogs are available.
April 16, 2022
Ah, JR, But hand picked by Osborne! Who extended his contract? Osborne?
Who does the BOE governor answer to with letters? Chancellor. If you can write on here where the govt and BOE are going wrong at least admit this is another govt.policy failing.
Structural deficit your govt failed policies or governor?
April 16, 2022
Carney is a Globalist operative. He does what the globalists want however their time is shortly coming to an end.
April 16, 2022
I wonder if more people have returned to the office than you think, Sir John. My gauge – the car-park outside the office over my local coffee-spot – has been full every day for months. I suspect a higher level of WFHing in the state sector, explaining why airports and airlines can’t get security checks for new staff done in a timely manner, and why driver-licensing is in such a mess. Whatever the case, I’m enjoying being able to get rail tickets at half the prices I used to pay.
April 16, 2022
My observation is that offices (private sector) are often full. I’d say long distance business travel has markedly dropped due to the aggravation at airports and road works having been delayed due to the pot-hole Covid variant.
Reply Not so. Offices around 60% of pre covid occupancy
April 16, 2022
Reply to reply. I said private sector, and I meant SME which is what I observe. Public sector and large corporates with quasi- or complete monopolies can push their customers away, so by and large pretty sparse.
April 17, 2022
Oh, similar to exports to the European Union re pre-brexit, then.
April 16, 2022
Good morning
As a Parliamentary party MP our kind host is in a difficult position. He can’t publish what needs to be published without compromising himself and his party’s reputation. Party loyalty undermines transparency, truth and understanding
On this issue and on many other issues that affect domestic politics there is no doubt in my mind that we are seeing a Tory party both in Parliament and in government so desperate to appease powerful vested interests that they will quite willingly destroy private taxpayer funds and erode liberties to further party interest
The vested interest in this particular case is of course the powerful RMT who to a large degree decide when and where the trains run. We saw Johnson and Co pander to the RMT on the P & O issue and now they pander to the RMT on the running of the railways. The RMT and many other Neo-Marxist unions have the upper hand as we saw with the NEU in Batley. The Tories will appease them at every turn by supporting them against OUR INTERESTS.
Labour’s largest donor, Unite, was raided by the police. Have we heard one word from the Tories or the press about this? Read that again. Labour’s largest donor raided by the police on suspicion of fraud and embezzlement. What would be the media and Labour response if the Tories largest donor was raided on similar grounds?
All around we are seeing a Tory party throwing our freedoms and cash onto the fire to protect Tory party interest from the now all powerful British LEFT who have embraced some of the most vile ideology ever to be ‘invented’
April 16, 2022
I tend to agree. Look at London Underground 21st world city with 20th century working practices.
Driverless trains established world technology. Not in London, though albeit I think HMG is trying to link them to bailout money.
Overall not sure with a flaky post Covid economy the cost of mass strikes is acceptable but in any event in the image of its leader who runs away so zero appetite or courage to take them on.
April 16, 2022
Dominic and Nigl. Agreed. Boris could win prizes for appeasement, and his cowardice and/or laziness is seized upon by Macron and others. The UK majority loses out at every turn, but what does Boris care, so long as the noisy ones are silenced for now (until next time).
April 16, 2022
The first driverless trains on a metro system anywhere in the world were supposed to have been the Victoria line in 1968, until the unions refused to let them run without a driver, who was then paid a premium of “boredom money” because it was harder to stay alert while the train did the driving.
April 17, 2022
How can the Unions stop operations by automation ?
Do you not remember the Wapping dispute ?
Management “We have a driverless train. We don’t need you any more. It does everything by itself. ”
Union “OK. We’re going on strike.”
Management “Oh. Alright. We give in. Have what you want.”
Those of us with experience of setting up such operations know the truth about the limits of automation in mass passenger transport.
April 16, 2022
Dominic,
âYou have one minute on the subject of âBob Crowâ without hesitation, repetition or deviation.â
April 16, 2022
two words will do ‘Sadly missed?’
April 16, 2022
The RMT has nothing to do with deciding when engineering works are scheduled.
April 16, 2022
A good post by Dominic and needed a response from JR, but no, he can’t do it.
April 16, 2022
Maintenance work has to be done on the railway and planning for this is made long ahead. Much of the work this weekend was planned long before covid even raised its nasty head. On your own line through Wokingham Sir John there is extensive work being done on the signalling system – replacement buses are running, OK much slower but there is still a service. It is regrettable that Euston is closed for instance but this work on improving our railways has and must be done to make the railways a more efficient and useful service.
April 16, 2022
Very similar to the NHS.
April 16, 2022
This shows complete lack of flexibility. If it were run like a proper business, this wouldn’t happen.
April 16, 2022
Davews – Euston should NEVER have been allowed to close on the four day Easter weekend. There are quieter weekends and days in the week now. When lockdown was on for the past two years there were months on end to get on with maintenance were the maintenance workers even working for those past two years? How much work was brought forward and done, it is all outside.
They shouldnât get away with this. May bank holiday is also closed just ridiculous.
April 16, 2022
As rail closures are planned in advance one cannot expect the planners to know when major holidays occur – they can’t know every thing, can they.
Taxes must be paid by a certain date, how do the tax authorities know that date – it’s a mystery.
April 16, 2022
A spokesperson for Transport for London (TfL) said: “Easter is an ideal time for us to undertake essential improvement works on the network as demand is lower and the four day weekend means we can do complex works that take longer.”
April 16, 2022
amazing – -publish that trains won’t run – then say demand will be lower – lets do engineering work…..
April 16, 2022
The covid Plan-demic has been and is being used to do nothing. You see and experience it all around you. All part of the Plan.
April 16, 2022
wish I’d known – might have organised a ‘rave’ on the empty concourse.
April 16, 2022
Socialism never works…
April 16, 2022
+1
And a lot of people often die in the process of discovering that it doesnât!
April 17, 2022
Well, three million Vietnamese died for daring to try to find out for themselves whether it did or not.
That’s a rather different thing.
April 17, 2022
What has socialism got to do with any of this?
April 16, 2022
Good morning.
Don’t worry, Sir John things will soon sort themselves out once wer have all been forced off the roads and on to those cattle trucks (trans, trams and buses), leaving the already paid for roads and motorways (the new Zil Lanes) nice and clear for the elites to enjoy.
The world of tomorrow. Or according to the WEF đ
PS Short enough ?
đ
April 16, 2022
+1
Look at this!
Telegraph.
âSpeed limiters could be fitted to all new cars under government plans to fall in line with a controversial European Union ruling.â
April 16, 2022
Service Stations will become ‘Charging Breaks’.
April 16, 2022
For those who can afford a +ÂŁ60k car.
April 16, 2022
and ÂŁ5 per litre of petrol.
April 16, 2022
Like so many things – things seemed to be better in the past. I used the railways a lot in the 1950s and 1960s. They didnât seem to have to shut the network down every five minutes in those days. I worked on a civil engineering site for a couple of years in the early 1970s. It involved work on one of the main lines into North London. We used to have âpossessionsâ to do the work – usually between midnight and five in the morning. We never had whole weekends and bank holidays. As such, things had to be organised with military precision. We can still do this. Shop refits are often done overnight.
April 16, 2022
Mike Wilson,
It is cheaper to run buses as a replacement rather than offer a proper rail service when you can get away with it. Hence so much engineering work with the cover story that the weekends are not crucial for commuters.
The infrastructure was then overseen by British Rail who still had the bulk of the expertise on track maintenance. When all the staff disappeared with privatisation you do wonder if the remnants of the maintenance teams were susceptible to having the wool pulled over their eyes and endless excuses for failure.
April 16, 2022
You’ve forgotten what the Beeching cuts did. It took away diversionary lines that could be used to work around engineering projects on main lines.
April 16, 2022
Prior to Beeching they had many diversionary routes and could still run services around engineering projects.
April 17, 2022
The operatives who did the work were in a position to require attractive payments for doing it at unsocial times, and so did it willingly.
The Tories destroyed their bargaining power, and so now they are less keen, perhaps.
April 17, 2022
yes I remember a specific. Printing Sunday newspapers. An ex-colleague had a brother who worked for those printing a London paper. He did a few hours late on Saturdays, or sparrow fart on Sundays, often ‘signed’ on and off by others (taking it in turn). He was paid what we earned for a week’s work.
Some on here will recall what led to Wapping?
The Tories destroyed their bargaining power -and a good job too !
April 17, 2022
What do you think that these “consultants” had to do for their ÂŁ6,600 a day for the Government re covid19 then? I’d say that it was just to have gone to the right school, myself?
Since the situation was a world first, what special knowledge did they have which was so valuable?
But carry on your hyperbolic trope about a specific few – probably measured in dozens tops – working-class blokes in the 1970s as a justification for disempowering millions eh?
April 16, 2022
The railways, like everything else in the public sector (which is effectively what it is) is heavily unionised and is run for the benefit of the people working in it, not the people wanting a service.
Tickets are prohibitively expensive. For a family of four, or even a couple, it’s a no-brainer to use their car because the cost of train tickets would probably be 4 times the cost, even with the inflated price of petrol. And they are not likely to use the train to take a holiday or visit a tourist attraction, unless their destination is in a city or town, because when you get off the train there won’t be any public transport to take you on to your destination.
As for the train taking the strain off the A303: that’s fine as far as Salisbury. But between Salisbury and Exeter, there are several stretches of single track where you get stuck – sometimes up to 15 minutes – waiting for a train coming in the other direction to clear the single track so you can proceed. And a single track makes the service more vulnerable to disruption.
It would cost a relatively small sum to upgrade the Salisbury – Exeter stretch to dual track all the way (and there will be many similar across the country). But the Dept for Transport doesn’t like small, practical and useful rail upgrades. Not when the Government can tax, borrow, print and squander ÂŁ100 billion+ on HS2 which has never had a proper business case.
Sir John still seems unusually reluctant to comment on the proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty. Is that because he knows the Government IS intending to transfer power to control “our democracy” in the future to the WHO – a corrupt and highly-politicised organisation – every time it declares there is a pandemic?
Reply I do use the train when I speak in Exeter. I agree line could be upgraded. I have not commented on WHO Treaty as I have not been asked to approve it in Parliament. I am not in favour of surrendering more powers to supranational bodies.
April 16, 2022
I hope for your sake Sir John that you never get transferred onto a replacement bus service at Salisbury when the line is down. Because the journey along the single carriageway stretches of the A303 and the country lanes to get from station to station will take hours, even IF there are no unplanned delays (ie accidents) on the A303.
April 16, 2022
Railway staff worked throughout the pandemic, taken a pay freeze for nearly three years now and have already taken the first round of redundancies with more to come. Most have worked in the private sector or the military before joining the railway btw.
April 16, 2022
Response to reply: By the time the WHO Treaty arrives in parliament it will be too late to make changes to it. Your government seems to agree with the EU position. I do not know if this is right or wrong. Also we cannot trust China to adhere to international treaties. Parliament spent three years discussing Brexit treaties. So you would have thought at least a debate on our negotiating position might be a good idea?
April 16, 2022
reply to reply….do you go via Bristol, or via Newbury?
April 16, 2022
I suspect that most in the SW might prefer full dualling of the A303 for a start to provide an alternative to the M5/M4.
April 16, 2022
Ohhhhhhhh yes!
April 16, 2022
Surely it will be too late to oppose successfully the WHO treaty when it comes before Parliament? And it will mean compulsory injection.
April 16, 2022
Christine Anderson of the AFD has spoken out against it.
She says it is like 9 foxes and 1 rabbit taking a vote on what they will eat for dinner!
April 16, 2022
Off topic, while I have it to hand, a recently published chart of UK GDP during my lifetime:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281744/gdp-of-the-united-kingdom/
It averages to 2.4% a year, so gross o% – 2% from Boris Johnson’s EU trade deal is at best a marginal impact.
Reply Has been below 2% since 2007
April 16, 2022
Iâve read and reread that. What does it mean?
April 16, 2022
It means that the one-off gain (or rather loss prevention) from his “super Canada” trade deal:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45673214
is equivalent to the natural growth of the UK economy over a relatively short average period.
At the bottom limit of 0% gain, that would be matched by zero months of natural growth at the average rate.
At the upper limit of 2% gain, that would matched by about 10 months of natural growth at the average rate.
(2.0% divided by 2.4% times 12 months = 10 months.)
I submitted Freedom of Information requests to five UK ministries and all were either unable or unwilling to say what they expected we would gain through this trade deal, while the EU Commission estimates it to be worth 0.75% of UK GDP, equivalent to 4 months of natural growth at the average rate.
Of course in principle any economic gain is to be welcomed, but not at any cost.
April 16, 2022
@Denis Cooper
Thank you for your reply. As an aside, why does an economy naturally grow?
April 17, 2022
An economy will tend to naturally grow because it is natural for the people living in it to want to improve their lives and do things better. The question I would ask is why the UK has had this fairly consistent pattern of growth for so long, at least since the war.
From October 2017:
https://brexitcentral.com/does-brexit-mean-cliff-edge-more-shallow-pothole/
“Does Brexit mean a âcliff edgeâ? More a shallow pothole”
“… if we look at Office for National Statistics figures for the year-on-year growth of the UKâs GNP from 1949 to 2016, booms and busts make little difference to longer-term trends. Macmillanâs consumer bonanza; disengagement from empire; entry into the EEC; the minersâ strike; Thatcherism; Blairism; globalisation: these things produced, at most, modest effects. Background noise apart, UK GNP since 1949 has grown at about 2.5 per cent per annum, irrespective of the party in office, regardless of geopolitical events (but with slightly higher figures in the two immediate postwar decades) … ”
On here just before the referendum, about the marginal impact of the EU Single Market:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/06/19/the-economic-experts-concerns-on-brexit-have-all-the-potency-of-the-millennium-bug-experts/#comment-818928
“So thereâs been a 62% increase in UK GDP, OF WHICH MAYBE 2% IS ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE SINGLE MARKET; all the rest, 60%, is the result of natural growth of the UK economy â which works out as 2.1% a year, somewhat short of the long term trend growth rate of 2.5% a year.”
April 16, 2022
I think it’s difficult to say much about the trend growth rate of GDP since 2007 when we’re still staggering back from the massive drop caused by the pandemic, and of course before that there was the boom and bust caused by the ECB setting euro interest rates to suit Germany. And before that there was the boom and bust cause by the ERM … what is not evident on the curve is any significant positive impact on the UK economy from accession to the EEC in 1973 or the advent of the EU Single Market in 1993.
April 16, 2022
The railways will be little used until the fare structure becomes sensible, surely the idea of a public service is to provide transport to a fixed timetable, thus it should cater for last minute travellers on a hop on, hop off use, but clearly that is not the case.
Researched the cost of a train journey for family member last week Wokingham – Bristol.
Cost to travel “on that day” one way ÂŁ180, down to ÂŁ28.00 one way with advance booking, but price varied depending on how far in advance is advance.
The cost of weekly and or monthly tickets if available was so varied and confusing.
After 45 mins of searching the web with some weird and wonderful organisations, including looking at split tickets, I gave up, as I was totally and utterly confused and disgusted at the price differences.
What ever happened to ” keep it simple stupid ”
Cannot beat the convenience of the car, but the Government want to tax us off the roads, and tax us to park, with a plethora of emission zones and traffic management charges, as well as all the usual cost loadings.
April 16, 2022
It’s the same approach with energy. Tax and ration the convenient, low cost alternatives to justify the inconvenient, high cost ones. Make the economy as inefficient as possible. Take a sinecure after politics in a quango that enforces it, like Deben and many others.
April 16, 2022
Railways plan sometimes months ahead. For staff to have a nice break they pick national holidays. A business that intends to make money would plan the work a week prior to those holidays so that maximum income will be made over the holidays. Not so with railways – who worries about loss of income?
April 16, 2022
The staff all work bank holidays.
April 16, 2022
Double time plus a day in lieu?
April 16, 2022
No. It’s part of their contracted hours.
Bank holidays don’t exist for staff on the vast majority of rail companies. Those conditions do – however – apply to private engineering contractors.
April 16, 2022
not station booking staff they don’t – the meet and greet, enquiry staff at major stations with empty platforms and concourse?
April 16, 2022
They are assigned to bus transfer duties. Tickets are still sold.
April 17, 2022
A volunteer colleague, sadly recently died, used to be employed on those duties (and other true volunteering like Games) -he was never a Railway ’employee’ just for an infrequent bus transfer day. The staff you mention would have time off.
April 17, 2022
Mickey Taking
(You really are, aren’t you !)
So this is how it works ?
Manager, “Ah. Bank holiday engineering again. Have a couple of days off gratis. We’ve got some volunteers coming in to cover your work.” *winks*
Or
Volunteer “You know what ? I’m going to give up my bank holiday to let that overpaid staff member skive off !”
I’ll leave readers to decide.
April 16, 2022
I imagine that staffing 530 sets of engineering works simultaneously over Easter must offer huge bonuses in overtime and rentals of equipment.
April 17, 2022
Most engineers are private contractors.
April 16, 2022
We need business people in government not pole climbing Oxford Alumni with eff all experience of the real world.
And in other news, the poke in the eye to the nay sayers over immigration, namely Rwanda. We now see the Civil Service finally showing its true colours (as opposed to leaking and whispering) with what looks to be like open revolt in the Home Office. They tried to hang Pretti Patel out to dry for being nasty to the previous pathetic Permanent Secretary and I see the current one is now being as difficult as possible.
I read that some Civil Servants will resign, let them go and find out how cushy their current life but many may refuse to work and have to be transferred.
Please make it clear that refusal to work is de facto a resignation. Do the job we ask or again go out into the real world.
Equally ignore the inevitable whiners who always come out of the woodwork plus, I note, a useless interfering UN agency.
This will generate real traction with your core vote if successful and could be a change moment.
Equally if it fails it will once again confirm what we already know.
April 16, 2022
Your comment is so true. I once attended a celebratory meal where there were a number of fairly senior Civil Servants from the Home Office. I found them such distasteful, arrogant, smug and self righteous company I nearly left after the starter. One, referring to the Gurkha situation regarding rights to live in Britain commented that they were only going to be unemployed and it would be cheaper for them to be unemployed over there than over here!
April 16, 2022
+1 Nigl
April 16, 2022
You are aware that “just following orders” was no defence for violating people’s human rights at Nuremberg?
April 16, 2022
just like all the nonsense we had to accept from the EU? Just following orders, you see.
April 17, 2022
So which of your human rights were violated by any such law that our Parliament ratified?
April 17, 2022
Take your pick NHL, there were tens of thousands of rules regulations directives and laws introduced into the UK by the EU.
You really think they had no.impact on our personal or corporate freedoms?
Most were not even debated by Parliament as the EU used treaty law to introduce them.
April 17, 2022
There are fourteen.
Name them or give up.
April 17, 2022
Strawman as usual from you NHL
Still it gets you closer to your 50 posts a day target NHL
Do you get a bonus?
April 16, 2022
Sorry, off topic
Another topic that keeps rearing its head is the cashless/digital currency linked to everything we do.
I watched a discussion about this on Together forum. Majid Nawaas was one of the speakers. He said he believes cashless will happen, but whether itâs done via the central banks or not, is key. The central bank route will enable government programming to be done. If this occurs weâll be as China. I read that Tony Blair is keen for this.
According to an article 70% of the British are very sceptical about the idea of digital currency. I think the amount of government control this would create; quite terrifying.
April 16, 2022
Help make it very difficult for them to force a cashless society on us. USE CASH – or you’ll lose it.
Fortunately, the small west country town I now live in still has several cash points. Since the first lockdown, when it became obvious that they were trying to force contactless payment on us, I have made a habit of withdrawing cash to cover that week’s smaller transactions. I also make a point of going to different machines so that they remain more likely to be retained in service. When I do a supermarket shop and pay by card, I get cashback.
April 16, 2022
Good idea.
April 16, 2022
I’ll second you Donna, it is very important to resist the implimentation of ‘the machine’.
April 16, 2022
Donna
I am making a point to use cash as much as possible too. A year or so ago, I watched a documentary on the topic of cash versus card. It is recognised that as a country, we are not ready for cashless. The government has agreed with ATM to keep the cash machines available. Every community is meant to have one, and for those who may have only ÂŁ10 in the bank and need to draw a small amount, corner shops and post offices will allow cash withdrawals without the need to buy anything. Long may this arrangement continue.
April 16, 2022
There are currently about ÂŁ94 billion worth of Sterling Notes and Coins existing outside the Treasury. The latter finances the issue and pays its Central Bank to produce and distribute the notes. The snag is the Treasury and its Revenue and Customs dept, knows those notes are out in the economy; but, doesn’t know how often they are being used in transactions that the VAT man and the Income Tax man can’t see. E-Money will solve that problem.
Down here in the New Forest, less and less restaurants and hotels will accept cash notes for payment. E-money is much cheaper to handle with their High Street Banks, that no longer want the expense of handling cash notes.
PS. The ÂŁ50 notes will be the first to be withdrawn. If you turn-up at a Bank with a suitcase full of ÂŁ50 notes to cash in, the guy behind you, will be the one with the handcuffs.
April 17, 2022
My two local cashpoints have dropped max withdrawel from ÂŁ500 to ÂŁ250.
April 16, 2022
Cashless transactions in normal currencies are quite a separate matter from digital currencies and have been happening for many years now with no particular problem.
I agree that we absolutely should retain cash, however.
April 16, 2022
Itâs always bewildering where all the money the govt raises in taxes goes. The MoD gets ÂŁ45bn pa yet all we hear about is how few ships, planes, tanks, soldiers etc we now have compared with the past and with other countries. It turns out however that one thing we have far more of then ever is civil servants.
Happily an opportunity is arising for a quick correction. It is reported that civil servants in the Home Office, against stiff competition perhaps the most useless and dysfunctional of our âpublic serviceâ departments, are refusing to implement the governmentâs new policy of processing illegal migrants in Rwanda. Clearly any civil servant refusing to implement the policies of the elected government must be dismissed for cause. Letâs hope there are a good few of them and we can make a real saving.
April 16, 2022
Reagan did it with air traffic controllers. Sack the lot, and start again.
April 16, 2022
Mark – unfortunately it will not happen here. No one has the balls and the globalist UK Establishment will not allow it to happen.
April 16, 2022
Each permanent secretary â the most senior civil servant in each department â is also the âaccounting officerâ for their department: the person who parliament would call to account for how the department spends its money. They have a duty to seek a ministerial direction if they think a spending proposal breaches any of the following criteria: see
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/ministerial-directions#:~:text=Ministerial%20directions%20are%20formal%20instructions,objection%20from%20their%20permanent%20secretary.
April 16, 2022
Channel migrants flown to Rwanda, a part of the absurd Commonwealth, will have the choice of residence in Rwanda or onward transportation to wherever they came from. Will this then happen? Channel migrant Rwanda residents will in future using their proof of residence be able to board planes to this country and on arrival present themselves as short-term visitors, refugees or indeed immigrants (the requirements for migrants with a job have been lowered). Our ineffable government already takes very large numbers of such immigrants from Asia and Africa. So no change, probably just as our global migration compact, common purpose, globalist and socialist government and civil service want.
April 16, 2022
We need more civil servants to cope with the mountain of extra red tape caused by brexit, and also to whom Tories can delegate responsibility so that they themselves do not get blamed for poor delivery and for mishaps.
April 16, 2022
You have no idea what you are talking about NHL
You are retired and are not working in any industry that exports or imports to or from Europe.
There is no mountain of extra red tape.
Stop making things up.
April 17, 2022
âThere will be teething problems⊠but the big question is, how many businesses ultimately think: âDo you know what? This is just too much hassleâ, and give up importing? Just as some businesses have already given up exporting because itâs not worth it.â
He added: âBusinesses exporting to the EU from the UK have already faced these rules, obviously, for the best part of a year. So itâs now going to be those businesses in the UK that import from the EU (that) have got to deal with this, essentially, new Brexit bureaucracy.
âThis is what taking back control of our borders means. It will hit some sectors harder than others. The rules are more complicated for animal products, in particular food products that contain bits of animals, because of all the requirements around that ( City AM).
April 17, 2022
Yes as you say acorn the EU are desperately trying to make life difficult for UK exporters.
April 17, 2022
Well, the London Economic has a recent headline “Brexit bites as a third of UK exporters to EU vanish under heap of red tape”
But what do they know?
April 17, 2022
and does a fictitious EU Economic headline ‘Business to UK plunges with mass unemployment widespread’?
April 17, 2022
Typical pro remain propaganda predictions.
Just more Project Fear nonsense.
Just keep quoting from your preferred Guardian and Independent sources.
April 17, 2022
Ah, “fake nooze” eh?
April 17, 2022
The report is for 2021 trade published 12/04/22, Peter.
It is not a prediction, it is documented fact.
April 17, 2022
No just remainers with their biased predictions of doom.
April 17, 2022
2021…not affected by Covid world trade restrictions
No says NHL
It’s only brexit
hilarious
April 16, 2022
Please bring back Motor Rail
April 16, 2022
It’s noticeable that those who deem it too unsafe to travel by train to offices pack themselves onto them for bank holidays and popular events.
The fact is that the railways cannot survive as a leisure-only mode of transport and the amount of debt accrued developing it for exponential commuter growth (something which was always too optimistic, in my view) cannot be recovered no matter what they do.
April 16, 2022
Your HS2 will have all the foreign owners and foreign trains able to use them and the British government wonât be able to continue with this poor management and youâll just sell us out to the Europeans again because you allow the Nationalised railway infrastructure managers to get away with this.
The busiest weekend of getaways from London and you force people onto roads because you close Euston for four days then I hear you have closed Euston for the May bank holiday so people canât plan travel then. The greens want people out of their private transport but you canât rely on trains in the UK. My son nearly missed his Grandads funeral because the train was just cancelled, we redirected a car to meet a taxi he had to book that quadrupled his journey cost.
The Unions are getting too powerful in the monopolies of essential services but how essential are they when you just let them cut us off. Weak, Weak, weak youâve created a monster you canât control. There isnât one taxpayer supported company that is managed properly. They are all managed for the benefits of the employees and as our politicians are all in the same mould paid from the public purse nothing will change.
April 16, 2022
What do you think union workers do when engineering is taking place on the railways on bank holidays ?
Stay at home ?
No. They don’t.
They work shuttle services, engineering diversions and shunt moves – get shoved in mini cabs (can’t have been nice during covid) to make services that have been broken into parts (they have to get there before their passengers do, obviously.)
April 17, 2022
There were thousands less passengers on the rail network than there were now and if they were working in bubbles like the rest of us that worked during lockdown did then risk was reduced. Other companies made suitable changes with masks and larger vehicles so people could sit one seat on each coach bench.
Are you saying that all engineering workers get picked up at home and taken to where the repair sections are? There are plenty of businesses that operate over bank holidays? Bank holidays arenât a thing for everybody, they often get enhanced pay as well as a day off in lieu at a time of their choosing.
So youâre saying all those people who arenât working at Euston on train services are working this weekend? I donât believe it.
April 16, 2022
Control of the masses. All part of the globalist plan. They do not give a —- about the people.
April 16, 2022
Well said — It really is about time we got value for money from the overpaid quango chiefs – especially those that are supposed to be running our railways.
Railways are still a great resource for this country, if only — If only they had some idea of how they are going to become more effective and give value for money.
Perhaps it is time the government led all of this by creating a strategic plan for transport that didn’t involve ÂŁbillions being spent and wasted — As one J Prescot would have said; Let’s have some joined up government!
April 16, 2022
I read a lot of opinion in this piece, but zero actual data. Does John Redwood know for sure that bank holiday railway revenues are currently higher than the normal business day revenues. If so, give us the figures.
The current bank holiday closures will have been planned years in advance as part of major projects. The cost of rescheduling them at a month’s notice due to the FA deciding to play a football match at Wembley will be massive. Who would pay that bill? The FA will have known well in advance about the closures and they went ahead and scheduled the game where they did once the two teams were known. That’s on the FA, not the railways.
One suspects that the train operating company bosses are doing exactly as John Redwood suggests, however they don’t get to control when track closures occur due to the shambolic nature of how the railways were privatised.
Why not come up with proposals to address the utter mess that was the Conservatives’ railway privatisation model which, as I see it, has been profitable for just three groups – lawyers, accountants and governments (the foreign ones which own the companies which run many of the train operating companies).
Why is it that Conservatives seem to think that other countries governments can run UK railways better than we can?
Reply This is about post covid patterns of travel and revenue so historic figures do not guide us!
April 16, 2022
Reply to reply – If those post covid patterns of travel remain then you can forget about having any sort of railway that can pay the costs already accrued to it. As others have said, engineering projects are years in the planning, materials are being delivered to site months in advance, stock and staff lined up to go weeks ahead and will work 24/7 to get that project knocked out and the block lifted before the next rush hour or else the engineering manager is hauled up before an inquiry.
These are the Orange Army heroes of the Sea Wall days. The very people and projects normally functioning country needs, so please stop dissing them.
WFH and lockdown was also a terribly risky thing to do.
The REAL issue here is that our economy is in such a parlous (and death inducing) state that a Bank Holiday Weekend looks important compared to a week day of business in the UK.
April 16, 2022
This is an opinion blog Peter. Do you know the facts, the actual data? If you do please share them. Otherwise isnât your comment just your opinion?
You say maintenance work is planned âyears in advanceâ the last two years have been extraordinarily out of the normal. Were the maintenance workers on national rail working full-time throughout the two years from march 2020 to Dec 2021 or not? Did they increase the maintenance as it was easier for them? Were there no opportunities to bring plans forward when the rail services were cut drastically as people started working from home and not using the rail services?
We are told above that other Countries do run railways a lot better than Brits, often sited are France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland. We really should compare when their maintenance work is done -v- ours. We should compare ticket costs, delays to service, cancelled services, replacement bus services. The lot, just as we should compare our health service with other insurance models and our schools and university performance.
April 17, 2022
I don’t have the facts, no, which is why I haven’t attempted to draw any conclusion or opinion other than the one I did, which was that the opinion in the original article is not supported by any facts or data (which is information I have available).
April 16, 2022
ORR have just published some new statistics for Q4 2021
https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/usage/passenger-rail-usage/
Season tickets accounted for 16.8% of franchised journeys made this
quarter, which is half of pre-pandemic levels. There were 236 million franchised passenger journeys made using ordinary fare tickets
between 1 October and 31 December 2021. This is equivalent to 77.5% of the 305 million journeys made in the same quarter two years ago and represents a 43.8pp increase in relative usage on a year ago. Journeys made with advance tickets reached 95.1% of pre-pandemic usage this quarter, with a 70.3pp increase in relative usage compared with a year ago. Off-peak tickets (up 47.0pp) and anytime/peak tickets (up 35.9pp) also had substantial increases in relative usage compared with a year ago. Other tickets, which include refunds, recorded a relative usage of 33.0% this quarter.
It seems as though leisure travel is now substantially more important in the mix, while regular commuting is becoming the sideshow.
April 16, 2022
The football match was not a month’s notice. The semi finals are this weekend every year. Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City regularly appear in these games.
April 16, 2022
short memory? I remember ‘Football specials’ very well.
However the losing fans, and sometimes the drunk winning fans would piss in the corridors and compartments. They would fight, swear, damage everything and finally enough was enough and they were ended.
April 17, 2022
Not true. They were last year, but in 2020 they were in July due to Covid, in 2019 on 6/7 April, in 2018 on 21/22 April, in 2017 on 22/23 April, in 2016 on 23/24 April and in 2015 on 18/19 April.
So, in the 5 normal seasons pre-Covid, the games were played on this weekend (3rd in April) just once. Furthermore, none of those weekends were Easter.
April 16, 2022
Since re-nationalisation the Railways have reverted very swiftly to type: they no longer have any commercial incentive to take the initiatives you are rightly urging, so they do not bother with them, and the accountable Minister says it is all the fault of those in charge of operations. The only thing that in my experience works well is obtaining compensation for a late running train.
April 16, 2022
Your post today in part was a trip down memory lane when you highlight the old Awaydays, Seaside Specials, City events that existed in the 50-60s.
Lots of people didn’t own cars then, now there are 3-4 in one family.
A lot of the major railway stations still suffer from the wrong infrastructure to get people away quickly once passengers and their families have arrived.
Trains like buses and planes are poor effective and efficient with full loads.
The railway companies fall down on imaginative marketing and selling off the empty seats which with modern technology they know are going to be unfilled. Young families could take advantage of last minute bookings to visit cities and get their children to enjoy the rail travel experience. A day return for a family for a fiver, catch and start them young. The train will travel empty or full.
British Airways was the classic day out to fly in Concorde, it always went out full and their was always a waiting list.
They need people that make things happen and the first thing is to ask the public what do you want and expect, then and only then can someone come up with a doable project and plan.
April 16, 2022
No nationalised organisation provides decent service because it lacks profit driven focus.Every nationalised industry is run for the convenience of it’s staff- just look at the huge amounts doctors now earn without ever seeing a patient.
April 16, 2022
but the GP nurses and pharmacists work their butts off instead. (and take the flak).
April 16, 2022
The answer is that the communist fifth column that has infiltrated the civil service, the unions, the quangos, and, in this case, the rail operators, continue their work to degrade our transport infrastructure with the goal of restricting our freedom to travel.
At the same time the Net Zero Strategy is designed to curtail our freedom to travel more easily and cheaply by road through the forced implementation of sub-optimal and expensive evs – long before the economy destroying decarbonisation of our electricity supplies is achieved.
Their militant wings, ER, JSO, IB etc. are all working this weekend to disrupt travel.
Note they never demonstrate against the burning of fossil fuels in communist countries such as Russia and China but promote our dependence upon these countries for our fuels, minerals, goods and food by continually advocating we close down all our oil and gas fields, stop any mining, export our manufacturing and re-wild our countryside.
April 17, 2022
Russia is not communist.
Where have you been for the last thirty years?
April 16, 2022
The Civil Service and railway operators have cleverly found a way to reduce costs and subsidies and at the same time improve cancellation and punctuality statistics, through the introduction of a new version of the âConditions of Travelâ, effective from 06/02/2022, which no longer requires rail companies to adhere to their twice yearly published timetables.
Instead the rail operators are allowed to change the timetable from day to day and produce what is termed the âThe Published Timetable of the Dayâ. This daily timetable must be published by 22:00 hrs the day before on the National Rail website.
This change makes operating the railways a lot less stressful and cheaper as the rail operator will no longer need additional staff to cover for sickness or pay overtime and they will be able to reduce maintenance costs. Trains can just be cancelled as and when necessary.
Compensation will only be paid based upon the performance compared to the âPublished Timetable of the Dayâ. Discounted advance tickets will be a gamble.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/National%20Rail%20Conditions%20of%20Travel.pdf
April 16, 2022
Looking at railways around the world, railways is a challenging issue for all countries. No easy solution regarding how to finance them (private / public etc).
The best we can do is try and emulate here and there the countries that have the best railway systems:
Something like: Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Finland, China etc
April 16, 2022
The Post Office is another sector where there is no clear black-and-white way about how to finance it (private / public etc). And not arguments we should get too embroiled about. Becomes too ideological. Instead we should be far more focused on how the UK can generate lots more money in the High Tech / Digital Sector. This is more practical and leads to far greater results in terms of revenue growth for the private sector (and we don’t want to waste time / energy on things where there’s no easy or clear solution).
April 16, 2022
The policy of discounts if you pay in advance is also problematic, confusing and out-of-step with the needs of train usersâŠ.canât we have a single straight forward fare
April 16, 2022
I do think London needs more sophisticated, beautifully-designed and efficient-looking trains arriving to and departing from our stations – something like Switzerland. Well-designed, modern, RED double-decker trains (bit like the London bus) – and turn this style of train in and around London into a cultural icon like the London black cab and London red bus – to cater for commuters in this area, as well as foreign business people on business here, tourists and people in this area in general. And dump the wasteful HS2 to Birmingham and the other cities further north.
April 16, 2022
Dear Sir John, When do you suggest track maintenance should be done?
As an Economist you will probably find this is the most cost-effective time to do the work when viewed by the managers of the train operating companies. The trains are not Nationalised only the track. You will recall this all goes back to Mrs Thatcher and your good self in privatising the Railways. It was found that there was no money to be made from just looking after the track so it had to be effectively re-nationalised again and the cost borne by the tax payer, without having any of the profit from running actual trains.
Not everything is more cost effective for the community as a whole, run on Capitalistic /free market concepts. Also Like the NHS too many managers running things with minimal input from the workers (Doctors, Nurses, cleaning staff, cooks etc,) tend to run the Business down. But don’t forget car ownership has increased which is a big disincentive to use a train.
The train operating companies/shareholders may be making a profit at the expense of the commuter/tax payer. ( plus the manager’s bonus for operating cost reductions)
April 16, 2022
Railway is an anchronism.
In days gone by, it was the only way people could go to another town for leisure. Then it became a mass transportation mechanism into cities that could not support the volume of cars to transport the nummber of workers.
The latter usage was often very uncomfortable and had a major negative effect on lifestyles and health. It was also ridiculously expensive for the traveller.
It has a key underlying assumption: that the traveller will visit a single end point near to (or within reach of) a railway station.
Most holidaymakers take their car because of the freedom it gives them AFTER they arrive and for its ability to carry any belongings they may wish to take with them, or to pop to a supermarket.
Personal transport = freedom. Trains are not equipped to compete.
April 16, 2022
P.S. That’s for personal transport. Railways to move goods makes sense, especially since it would remove long-distance HGV which clogs up roads and causes more damage to roads than cars cause.
April 16, 2022
XY. Oh for the days of yore. There was a time when rail fares were reasonable and when you got to your destination there were frequent buses to take you further. Not any more!
April 16, 2022
Buses? – -don’t you mean horse-drawn carts?
April 16, 2022
OFF TOPIC. – from BBC news website.
Dozens of elderly patients at a hospital in Shanghai have died after contracting Covid-19, but official government figures claim no deaths in the city have been caused by the disease since 2020.
The BBC has spoken to a hospital manager and had access to correspondence sent to relatives of patients who’ve died during the Omicron outbreak that is sweeping through China’s biggest city.
We’ve also had access to official documents that suggest at least 27 patients from a single hospital, who weren’t vaccinated, have died from what it called “underlying health problems”.
Shanghai is enforcing a mammoth lockdown as authorities try to contain a new wave of the virus. Most of the city’s almost 25 million population have been ordered to stay inside for three weeks.
April 16, 2022
Rail assets in terms of track capacity and rolling stock have green sized on the basis of meeting peak rush hour demand. Now that the evidence is accumulating that this peak is likely to remain much lower we need a complete reappraisal of the basis for the railways. Leisure use clearly attracts some passengers: I might be tempted by some of the famous scenic routes so long as they aren’t despoiled with wind turbines. Some of them depend on coal.
Longer term the question must surely be whether most traditional rail shouldn’t be replaced by much more flexible systems for automated vehicles, taking advantage of the city centre access of rail routes. This requires proper study, and could encompass freight traffic as well as passengers. Time to join the 21st century.
April 16, 2022
If the civil service and the railway operators really believed in providing an efficient, reliable and affordable service for the future they would be working now on driverless trains, starting with the London Underground.
April 16, 2022
You could say, why donât politicians want our vote anymore. Pandering to the mob. Well I have ripped up my postal vote. Donât see the point anymore. The Tories have turned my Market town into a sh** hole. I expected better. I will never vote again whilst councils employ a diversity and inclusivity waste of space. Can John give an example where diversity has improved an area. Rotherham, Doncaster, Leeds, Slough, Go walk around there at night.
April 16, 2022
BW. I have to agree with your findings regarding the inclusive and diversity twaddle. This is only getting worse with the dinghy issues.
On the subject of the railways. I bought a 3 year senior rail card when I moved from Scotland to England. I used it twice. It was so stressful finding someone else in my seat and having nowhere to put my luggage I didnt bother. I’d rather drive and it’s cheaper too.
April 16, 2022
In answer to your title question. Possibly because they are more dependant on government/taxpayer support than on customer satisfaction and support. Railways are a take it or leave it service.
April 16, 2022
âPolitical correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the
lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.â
April 17, 2022
Was this Orwell ?
2+2 =5
It’s not yet a SOCIETY of emasculated liars but it surely is of rulers.
April 17, 2022
Theodore Dalrymple. fan of Hitchens. Just looked him up. Does he post on here ?
Shropshire/France aged 72. Which of you is he ?
April 17, 2022
Theodore seems to have churned out a lot of words on the Plebs.
He needs to churn out a few on the top echelons.
April 16, 2022
No, Ministers do not need (with their usually negligible ability to run a business successfully) to intervene more. (Nor am I actually convinced that the railways’ diminished, though not as diminished as John Redwood suggests as outside the public sector many people still are working a five day week at their place of work, emloyment related business is still not far more lucrative than their leisure travel business.)Ministers need to fully denationalise the railways and stop spending any taxpayer money on railway support. Since the development over 100 years ago of cars, lorries and roads, the railways’ short period (little more than 50 years) of being the country’s primary transport system ended and it is now a secondary transport system. I can see no good reason for spending any, let alone large amounts, of taxpayers’ money on a secondary transport system. If, or rather to the extent, there is a genuine commercial market for it, well and good, it can be run commercially without subsidies on proper financial and commercial lines by private sector businesses. To the extent there is insufficient demand to sustain a proper commercial business, those parts of the railwa\y should be closed down and the land sold off.
April 16, 2022
The UK gov needs to seriously investigate how it can protect our country from potential hypersonic missiles (including nuclear? Not sure if these missiles can carry nuclear war heads but nuclear weapons can certainly be delivered in other ways quickly. God forbid any attacks like this. Huge task to produce such defence capability but we must at least try. Science is amazing. And we might have to liase with other countries in our geopolitical area to greatly help reduce the research and developement costs and to share resources and brain power.