Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolution
Well, my view is that "Rail" should never have been privatised......... it's a National Strategic Asset and should be run by the Government for strategic reasons, not...for the profit or wims of a private Company.
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<Rant mode> I fully agree that the Railway should be run for the benefit of its users (both passengers and freight) but the whole trouble is that the Railway
is being run by the Government, that's why it's so crap. Just like in the Health Service, it's ignorant and arrogant Civil Servants and Ministers (via the ORR) who make the decisions like who has the rolling stock, which lines will be upgraded, which TOCs get the pathways (remember the GNER fiasco), etc etc - whilst the professional railway managers have their hands tied.
What we want is far less interference from Whitehall, not more. As was stated above....what the railway needed in 1996 was financial support, sadly what it got was political meddling.
Unqualified wasters who couldn't run a bath have seized control and are dithering over the important decisions that need to be made. Look at the pathetic mess they made of the ECML electrification; everytime the wind blows off the North Sea the wires come down. Similarly now that CTRL is complete we could be getting their hardware and skillbase at an unrepeatable bargain price to create HS2 - but just watch the chance slip away.
And speaking of money, I'm saddened that so many people on here who ought to know better don't seem to realise that Train Operating Companies are compelled to make massive annual fare hikes because the terms of their fanchises require them to pay an increasing amount each year to the Treasury. What starts as a subsidy in the first year of the franchise eventually becomes a massive repayment. And the extra money that passengers pay each year goes straight into Government coffers, not infrastructure improvements. It's yet another way of taxing the people of this country.
I'm afraid that historians will look back on this period and see how the incompetence and greed of the Treasury ruined most of the Public facilities in this country. </Rant mode>