Dear George
Like most of the British public I feel
that our trains are over crowded, under funded, over priced, dirty
and slow. We all moan of course and dear God don’t we all moan but
alas we don’t do anything about it and have reached a point where
we don’t expect anything will ever be done about it… it’s that
British thing we do. It maddening me to see train companies raising
the price of a ticket while it’s the government who has to pay for
the actual infrastructure of the railway system… I thought
privatisation was supposed to make things better!
We seem to have a system in place in
which the Government has to look after all the expensive parts of
running the trains, like track maintenance, using our tax money.
While the train companies get to stuff their pockets with all the
money they make from selling advertising space, selling over priced
sandwiches and charging people twice the normal fare for not booking
three weeks in advance… here’s an excellent example... I had a
freelance gig in Durham. It was all very last minute, the job was
for the next morning. If I’d bought a ticket on the day, it was
going to cost me around £140! By booking on line a mere 14hours
before I needed to leave saved me half that amount… Honestly, can
you believe it? A three-figure sum just for having the audacity to
want to buy a ticket on the day I wanted to travel!
You may be asking why i've chosen to
rant so passionately about the state of be-railed transportation in
Britain. I can hear your confused and astonished voices now, asking:
'Where have you been, Dave? You must
have so many adventures to talk about. When's the next podcast and
why is Zoe so much better than you on them?'
All valid question, I grant you.
However, I have chosen this moment to release my frustration about
train travel because I had recently read an article in the newspaper about
train company 'southwestern' were going to go on strike unless they
get a bonus for working during the Olympic games. This tipped me
over the edge. The bonus, they feel, will compensate for the 'stress'
they will incur during the games. The 'stress' of driving a train?
It's not like they're pushing the blooming thing! If they are worried
about the stress of driving a train that's packed full of people, who
are crammed into every available nook and cranny, with no chance of a
seat, despite paying astronomical ticket prices … you would think
the train drivers would be use to working in those conditions by now!
Back in the olden days, the railways
were nationalised; they belonged to us, just like the water
companies, gas companies and America. British Rail, as it was known
then, was subsidised by the government by around £1.5billion.
That's tax payers money helping out the running of public transport.
Today, now the railways are owned by private companies, in order to
keep the railway network working the government has to shell out £4
billion of public money! That's 35% more than any other nation, and
this is despite a growth in UK rail traffic of 57%. Since 1994 when
private companies took control of the trains, they have received 57%
more business from the public while taking an extra £2.5 billion of
public money. AND let's no forget that we, as a nation, pay 30%
higher fares than anywhere in Europe.
The McNulty report has recently been
published, it's a report on the state of the railways in this country
(it is also where I have found most of my stats.). One of the
suggestion made in the report is that in order to make railways more
efficient, rail companies should cut 30% of off peak trains. To put
it another way, companies should cut 100% of the trains for those
people who use those particular trains, namely the people who don't
do use peak time trains … people like me! The report also
questions the extent of regional rail networks. Sir Roy McNulty
concludes that THIS is what's causing the massive inefficiency to the
rail companies; the thoughtless members of the public who are paying
twice; in tickets and in subsidises, wanting, nay expecting, trains
to take them places. McNulty's solution seems to be; The way to
prevent trains from being late is to stop running them altogether.
It's a glorious 23*C outside, my train
was 2mins late this morning, and a first class stamp will coast you 60p
We have a brand spanking new email address, so why send us your own adventures: chinamansadventure@rocketmail.com
Take care buddy,
Yours,
Little Dave
