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That aside, that's a remarkable consensus to renationalise. Does nobody remember British Rail any more? If people are expecting fares to fall under a government-owned business, they're in for an unpleasant surprise.
'The train is 10 minutes late, owning to a government owned and operated points failure'
Would that my own union could find some of that Bob Crow stardust at the minute.
Let the government bid for contracts as they come up - and take it back bit by bit - just as we allow the French and German governments to do already.
I'm no nationalisation supporter but railways seem like one of those areas where competition iisn't really enough to drive prices down or quality of service up. The way the franchise system works does not engender competition in the same manner as air travel, electricity or some other vital national infrastructure.
Off topic: there is no way I am buying a French car again, after my Peugeot burst into flames one Sunday afternoon in Brent X car park while I was still sitting in it. A fire engine never looked so beautiful as it did that day.
As a fellow 52 year old I was quite shocked by Bob Crow's death. He has made his union members much wealthier than they would have been otherwise and that was his job. He was good at it.
As a 52 year old I remember when there were as many union leaders who were household names as politicians. Right now I have no doubt that I could name more members of the shadow cabinet than union leaders. Crow was one of a former generation who used his union position to project a moral stance on the nation. His stance was not one I agreed with but he had an integrity in presenting it that is very rare on any side and especially in the post Blair Labour party.
The broader Labour movement is diminished by his passing. (And I can't help feeling those who made a song and dance about him going away on holiday a couple of weeks ago look pretty stupid too.)
https://t.co/iTHbMilQV1 explains just how full the tracks are and how a single issue snowballs.
Also in my opinion provides the best explanation as why HS2 is desperately required.
Well, that's the ironing done. I do the ironing, vacuuming and repair all minor household disasters. Such is the life of a retiree. I'm lucky though, my wife is an exceptionally good cook.
Getting back to Bob Crow. I understand that though big and bulky, Crow was a fanatic at exercising in the gym. I have noticed that many exercise freaks have sudden and early deaths.
On the Mini: it's too bloody small for many aged people to get in and out of, thanks to lack of flexible joints. (no not on the car)
Also Bob Crow spells his name with no e
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25133803
Having to manage an expanding network has been a slight (albeit welcome) shock to many of the railway old-timers, who had spent decades managing decline.
Privatisation has been far from a failure. There are other models to be examined (e.g. the concessionary system I am always banging on about), but if they are renationalised, than governments have to guarantee funding, and the change should not throw out the baby with the bathwater:
The railways as a whole exist in some weird half-life between privatisation and nationalisation - they are exceptionally highly regulated, and even more so than flights.
To put it simply: a change of ownership will not automatically cure the railway's ills. Indeed, if done thoughtlessly it could easily make things much worse.
If we're having policy by popularity then I look forward to us leaving the EU. We'd also have to re-introduce the death penalty.
Christian Wolmar asks the question "what is franchising for?" - the trick of course is that no one is able to answer that question.
[sorry]
Not the worst start despite the main bet Irving flopping:
Loss £32 Irving
Loss £6 Un Ace
Loss £0 Wicklow Brave (£5 Stan James Free Bet)
Profit £15 Josses Hill
----------------
Loss £23
But Vantoux part of a double
Hedged Quevega now for the double with Vantoux (CHICKEN YES I KNOW !)
Profit if Quevega loses: £18,
Profit if Quevega wins: £50.30
Trifolium in the Arkle :O !
In no particular order:
I absolutely loathe their charging structure which makes any ticket bought on the day seem a total rip off.
Parking near most railway stations in Scotland is a nightmare and adds considerably to the price of the journey.
Trains are generally overcrowded and uncomfortable compared with my car. I would rather sit in a traffic jam and have the radio and my hands free phone.
As a general rule there is not enough trains so the delays if you just miss one are frustrating.
The internet almost never works on trains in Scotland.
I don't think that most of this has been affected by privatisation one way or the other. With Scotrail the difference between nationalisation and private sector is not obvious. East Coast provides a better service (yes, it is that bad).
My instinctive feel is that the taxpayer is being ripped off by the franchises but a nationalised railway would be getting starved of investment right now and for the foreseeable future. Integration of ownership between the trains and the lines seems an obvious place to start.
How does a concession system work?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-26528814
Which taxes do you want to be increased in order to pay for lower rail fares which are used by less than a quarter of the general population? (I'm guessing the last bit - it may be even less)
£6 E/W @ 4-1 = Scratch !
'That aside, that's a remarkable consensus to renationalise. Does nobody remember British Rail any more? If people are expecting fares to fall under a government-owned business, they're in for an unpleasant surprise'
How many people taking part in the poll are old enough to have sampled the offerings of British Rail?
Rolling stock that belonged in a museum,each journey was a magical mystery tour,never quite knowing when the train would depart let alone arrive at its destination,staff with zero concept of customer service and yes,very expensive tickets.
Far better , if you are going to nationalise anything , to start on water or electricity
However, the current setup means that the franchisees are not accepting much risk - they just go bust. Also, the system is horribly complex and expensive to run, and the operators are too highly regulated to be given the freedom a franchisee should really have.
Concessions are different: the owner pays a company to run services, which are tightly regulated by the owner. The concessionaire accepts very little risk, but the opportunity for profit and branding are also much less. Much of the risk is put onto the owner: then again, it is under the current system.
There are some about already: the DLR is one, and so is (I think!) the Tyne and Wear Metro.
You also need to add in Open Access operators; these should continue whatever the ownership IMHO. And as ever freight should not be forgotten.
So basically: the franchise system is broken by the over-regulated nature of the railways, and the lack of risk put on franchisees. A concessionary system might be a better fit.
The following may be of interest:
http://www.railhub2.co.uk/rh4/business/briefs/RHB_franchise.php
http://www.publicworld.org/files/larailenglish.pdf
He had a very confrontational style, which worked short term to lift wages but at a significant cost to consumers and the operation of the business. Now, you could argue that is in the interests of his members (what I would define as the "finest union leader") but I'd argue that a collaborative approach - such as you see in Germany or at JCB or Honda UK - is far more in the workers interests over time.
A real benefit is that you can go to the loo at anytime - unlike when driving.
I think privatisation has made train travel better - it has certainly made it more popular with record numbers being carried.
It makes one wonder.
But based upon the lefty reaction and BBC News & Sky, Bob Crowe was some kind of saint who will soon be at Comrade Marx's right hand in whatever form of heaven Marxists go to.
I don't remember his fellow travelers & useful idiots being so universally positive when he was around
http://www.racfoundation.org/assets/rac_foundation/content/downloadables/on_the_move-le_vine_&_jones-dec2012.pdf
http://www.racfoundation.org/data/changing-travel-trends
In a zero sum repeated game you need to build trust between the two sides. It wasn't possible to trust Crow - he was too trigger happy with strikes for meaningless things.
I have, however, given up on working on trains after 2 experiences when the parties to a case I was involved in were on the same carriage (it's a small country). In the (unlikely) event that internet is available (again in my experience much better in England, at least on the east coast line) it is a chance to play and catch up with pb but that is rare enough to not swing it in this particular case!
On balance I agree that privatisation is better than it was before but it is a long, long way short of perfect.
Cheltenham Loss: £29.
WD Holywell backers.
And we're doing well comparatively in Europe, being second in a survey behind Finland, which has a tiny network:
http://www.railnews.co.uk/news/2013/12/20-britain-has-best-major-rail.html
and have improved the most in Europe since the 1990s (i.e. since privatisation):
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/news/2013/apr/European-rail-study-report/
http://www.redmolotov.com/catalogue/tshirts/all/bob-crow-tshirt.html
RIP. A very effective negotiator for the London Underground staff, but only because of their stranglehold on the throat of a nation.
I see Cyclefree was looking for a cheap motor. I had a road trip to Provence in a 2CV once, a great road trip car, albeit slow, but safety was non existent.
Small cars are much safer now. A Fiat 500 has better crash safety than my Saab 900 of a decade ago, and is cheap to insure. Even small modern cars are safer than executive cars of a decade or two ago. Worth a look...
However, with increasing passenger numbers, many of the main lines are getting under capacity which is inhibiting more frequent trains joining from the branch lines and I have not even started on rail freight opportunities.
This morning I posed a question about whisky. At lunch I travelled to a friendly whisky shop in Cambridge. With some great help from the assistant, I picked the following 5cl bottles:
Springbank 10 yr
Bowmore 12 yr
Macallan 10 yr
Arran 14 yr (*)
Robert Burns (another Arran)
Glenlivet 12 yr
All held in straw in a second-hand Cuban Bolivar cigar box.
It's not a perfect mix of whiskies, but should be okay to give them a sample of the differing tastes. It looks so good I can scarcely bring myself to give it away!
Oh, and I got a 70cl bottle of Ardbeg Uigeadail for myself! ;-)
Malaysia’s defence and acting transport minister Hishammuddin Hussein tweeted: “Have we missed anything?”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/blog/2014/mar/11/malaysia-airlines-mh370-search-refocused-on-malacca-straits-live-updates
I sense that what angers people isn't service its price. If and when people get more cash in their pcoket the complaints will fade. Over to you George.
'I am struggling to spot the respects in which things are now different.'
Did you actually travel on the railways before 1993?
If it's really so bad and such a rip off,how do you explain the record passenger numbers and the need for more capacity?
http://www.whisky-cigars.co.uk/
Now known as East Midlands Trains.
http://news.sky.com/story/1223813/missing-malaysia-jet-suspect-not-terrorist
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/italian-man-luigi-maraldi-reveals-how-his-passport-used-on-flight-mh370-was-stolen-in-bizarre-circumstances-in-thailand/story-fnizu68q-1226849959855
From chats I seem to find that essentially all guards would prefer re-renationalisation.
If I was in a union he'd be the kind of person I'd want to head it. He put members interests first and said stuff the politics.
Separating the rolling stock from the train operators seems to have been a big mistake - it allowed the rollcos to cream off vast profits and just made it harder for the train operators. I suppose if you could increase track capacity by a large factor then you could allow a free market to operate in the buying and selling of track access, and you could allow any train company to run any train anywhere, provided they've bought the track access.
I don't think there's enough spare capacity in the system to allow that, which means that any train operating company wanting to do anything really different, basically can't.
There is no belief stronger than nostalgia. Politicians from 19th century nationalists to 21st century socialists alike have made careers by fostering the belief that the good old days can be made immanent again - not to mention the belief that they were good at all.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26526094
Got to say the idea seems mad. Fair enough to provide free school meals to the poorest, but why offer them to the children of the moderately and very wealthy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_West_Rail_Link
Flattering Mike Smithson by calling him "excellent" and providing "a unique service"
You'll go far on this site.
Most on the right are saying he was good for his members interests, but poor for the customer/commuter.
I can't agree. You can say that, ultimately, every job should only be all about the customer, but to believe that is to believe that prices and costs should be ever cheaper, regardless of the interests of the employees. If we automate everything, outsource everything, send our jobs overseas to make production costs cheaper, we're losing jobs here, making our life harder.
It's naive of me, I know, but we can't all be bankers, lawyers, doctors, software designers, or business owners. Some of us work for relatively low wages. The government have to effing top up the wages hundreds of thousands of people, for god's sake. That's just plain madness. You'll all tell me that people make their own choices, can carve their own career out. I don't believe you.
Bob Crow fought against that, making a difference for the little guy. We need more like him.
But track capacity is very, very expensive - you do not get much change from £50-100 million, even for a change that will give a small amount of capacity, as at Norton Bridge. There will rarely be enough (especially in the commuter belts during rush hour) to satisfy operators.
The fate of the ROSCOs (the companies that own the rolling stock) is one area the renationalisation bods on here have yet to adequately address.
His members did well out of his miltancy, but by the end he was over playing the RMT's hand. Would Boris and co even be considering driverless trains if the RMT had been more co-operative?? I doubt it.
How about the 'little guys' who were injured or lost their lives because they had no other choice than to cycle in even more congested traffic, and ended up underneath a lorry or car?
Crow made a difference to them alright.
Capitalism as we knew it has moved on. I put it down to 1989 and the opening up of the global economy. To date none of our politcal parties has sat down and thought what it all means and how we need to change as a result.
Like schools, hospitals and councils - for the employees innit ?
I agree that its not Bob Crow's problem and that his job was for his members interests but no reason for anyone else to think that fondly of him or his union
Of course, if the media weren't superficial when it comes to politics, the electorate disinterested and the political class insulated and often mediocre we could have a proper discussion about this.
He can be partly blamed for the deaths and injuries of those inexperienced cyclists who were forced to use that form of transport due to strike action.
If the trains had been running, they wouldn't have been on two wheels.
Last year Mike succumbed to the flattery of @davidherdson who said of OGH :
"Mike Smithson's bald spot was the greatest undiscovered landmark of the nation and should become a scheduled monument."
And now Herders has a weekly Saturday column on PB !!
There is also a stigma still about getting free school meals due to parent's income which cannot be nice for the child