Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

British Rail. Again.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    British Rail. Again.

    Well its looks like the East Coast main line its back in public ownership. For a while at least.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8127851.stm

    They should never have privatised them.

    #2
    British Rail. Again.

    Quite agree.

    Unfortunately Bob Crow makes a very good case for keeping it broken up.

    Comment


      #3
      British Rail. Again.

      Explain?

      Comment


        #4
        British Rail. Again.

        It's only temporary - the same thing happened when Connex southeastern defaulted about five years ago.

        The ECML will end up being run by First, or Virgin, or someone like that. This is bad news - NX are one of the better of a bad bunch.

        Comment


          #5
          British Rail. Again.

          Lord Adonis, secretary of state for transport, criticised National Express and signalled that the group should expect a backlash from government.

          "I note that the parent groups of previous franchise failures are no longer in the UK rail business. It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging."
          So why the fuck did you award them a huge franchise without getting a fucking guarantee of the fucking obligations of the fucking TOC from its fucking parent, you fucking fuck?

          The Department of Transport really is like a bureaucratic incarnation of Charlie Brown. Lucy holds out the ball of payments to the government. Again and again the government gets all excited about the money it's going to receive. And what do you know, a few years (or months in some cases) into the franchise the TOCs decide they can't afford it, and the DfT goes arse over tit. Every time. Why doesn't the DfT ever learn?

          Comment


            #6
            British Rail. Again.

            Because we have a government which will not take the only step known to work.

            Rail privatisation is to the UK what health is to the US. The current system is completely fucked, was driven through for utterly insane ideological reasons, no-one likes it except the privateers who have a license to print money, and yet somehow the system stays on the roads because of a pack of twats who don't have the brass balls to do the right thing, because that right thing has curiously been ruled off the agenda.

            Comment


              #7
              British Rail. Again.

              It's not all that curious. The current setup allows the government to keep its obligations to the railways (eg effective guarantees on Network Rail's debt) as contingent liabilities, reducing the PSBR. And it can boost its budget forecasts with the fictional future payments from TOCs. Why the public seems resigned to this scandalous state of affairs is another matter altogether.

              Comment


                #8
                British Rail. Again.

                The NE contract does expect the parent group to pick up the losses. However NE have decided to forego the contract rather than doing that.

                I guess we could take them through the courts for years, but I expect they have found a way out and the legal advice means that they can walk away.

                Their services have been pretty shit. As a reasonably regular traveller on either the East or West coast lines, it has been years since it was cheaper to take the east.

                Comment


                  #9
                  British Rail. Again.

                  The NE contract does expect the parent group to pick up the losses. However NE have decided to forego the contract rather than doing that.
                  That suggests a really shoddily drafted contract. And more importantly, even if the contract is drafted perfectly well, it indicates the stupidity of the existing franchise system. If a company can just walk away from a multibillion pound commitment to the taxpayer - which commitments seem to be from all I've read far and away the most important factor in franchise awards - with minimal losses, then you have a broken system.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    British Rail. Again.

                    Like votes for independence/devolution, privatisation only needs to be voted for once. It probably could never have happened except for that spell in the nineties when it did, and even then, if Robert Addey (who coined the phrase "Poll Tax on wheels") hadn't died, there might have been enough momentum against it on the Tory benches.

                    It's even more irrational than American health, I think. There are plenty of places who have private health systems which work well- with of course state intervention, but then again America has some of that. I don't know anywhere that runs a good, private railway.

                    National Express are good at running coaches. I hope these are unaffected.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      British Rail. Again.

                      The thing is, at this stage it's not even the privatisation per se, but the utterly (and apparently deliberately) ridiculous approach to TOC franchises and rolling stock companies. Franchises are awarded on the basis of transparently unrealistic bids, tied to specific train leases that may not make sense for the long term development of the railway, and then when they fail to deliver, the government just repeats the process while refusing to even consider a public sector bid.

                      Nor is the situation helped by Labour's bizarre divvying up of responsibility for the railways. There was the now defunct SRA, there's the DfT, there's the Office of the Rail Regulator, and of course Network Rail. And then there's the Treasury, which more or less has a veto.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        British Rail. Again.

                        National Express today reassuring shareholders more than the general public:

                        "Under the DfT's [Department For Transport's] model for franchise bidding, the Group's financial obligations under the East Coast franchise are strictly limited. Like all rail franchises, NXEC [National Express East Coast] is a special purpose vehicle, set up to meet the DfT's requirement as a standalone legal entity, with its own assets, management team and franchise agreement with the DfT. National Express is not a party to, or a guarantor of, NXEC's obligations under the East Coast franchise agreement."

                        Comment


                          #13
                          British Rail. Again.

                          Did anyone see Theresa Villiers, the Tory transport spokesman, on News24 this morning? Dear Christ, she was awful. Totally bereft of knowledge and intent only on scoring cheap points against the government - except on the one issue where you could legitimately have a go at them. The New Model Tories are as wedded to the dogmatic insanity of the privatisation project as they were in 1993.

                          And what GY and NHH have said. Why hasn't that chancer Adonis been found out yet?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            British Rail. Again.

                            Ginger Yellow wrote:
                            The thing is, at this stage it's not even the privatisation per se, but the utterly (and apparently deliberately) ridiculous approach to TOC franchises and rolling stock companies. Franchises are awarded on the basis of transparently unrealistic bids, tied to specific train leases that may not make sense for the long term development of the railway, and then when they fail to deliver, the government just repeats the process while refusing to even consider a public sector bid.

                            Nor is the situation helped by Labour's bizarre divvying up of responsibility for the railways. There was the now defunct SRA, there's the DfT, there's the Office of the Rail Regulator, and of course Network Rail. And then there's the Treasury, which more or less has a veto.
                            Not forgetting the maintenance of the permanent way in the hands of yet another company

                            Comment


                              #15
                              British Rail. Again.

                              Guy Potger wrote:
                              Ginger Yellow wrote:
                              The thing is, at this stage it's not even the privatisation per se, but the utterly (and apparently deliberately) ridiculous approach to TOC franchises and rolling stock companies. Franchises are awarded on the basis of transparently unrealistic bids, tied to specific train leases that may not make sense for the long term development of the railway, and then when they fail to deliver, the government just repeats the process while refusing to even consider a public sector bid.

                              Nor is the situation helped by Labour's bizarre divvying up of responsibility for the railways. There was the now defunct SRA, there's the DfT, there's the Office of the Rail Regulator, and of course Network Rail. And then there's the Treasury, which more or less has a veto.
                              Not forgetting the maintenance of the permanent way in the hands of yet another company
                              He didn't forget...

                              Comment


                                #16
                                British Rail. Again.

                                Gangster Octopus wrote:
                                Guy Potger wrote:
                                Ginger Yellow wrote:
                                The thing is, at this stage it's not even the privatisation per se, but the utterly (and apparently deliberately) ridiculous approach to TOC franchises and rolling stock companies. Franchises are awarded on the basis of transparently unrealistic bids, tied to specific train leases that may not make sense for the long term development of the railway, and then when they fail to deliver, the government just repeats the process while refusing to even consider a public sector bid.

                                Nor is the situation helped by Labour's bizarre divvying up of responsibility for the railways. There was the now defunct SRA, there's the DfT, there's the Office of the Rail Regulator, and of course Network Rail. And then there's the Treasury, which more or less has a veto.
                                Not forgetting the maintenance of the permanent way in the hands of yet another company
                                He didn't forget...
                                Wasn't in the first paragraph.

                                Wasn't in the "Executive Summary"

                                Honestly, do you seriously think I've got time to read these things properly?

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  British Rail. Again.

                                  I think all posts should have an Executive Summary...

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    British Rail. Again.

                                    Gangster Octopus wrote:
                                    I think all posts should have an Executive Summary...
                                    [Executive Summary]
                                    " is a cunt"…
                                    [/Executive Summary]

                                    Comment

                                    Working...
                                    X