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Letters to the Editor
 
Privatisation of Tube and the Oyster scam

In last week’s CNJ you observed in your second editorial (Solving the debt) how private companies are “taking over the public sector”.
You note that Tony Blair is continuing the process started by Margaret Thatcher. One difference in approach, though, is that whereas Mrs Thatcher sold off state assets up front and with a fanfare of publicity, New Labour involve the private sector rather more stealthily and not always at one go (hospital and school trusts, and Arms-Length Management Organisations in council housing).
London Underground, encouraged by the government, has part-privatised the Tube’s infrastructure maintenance operation. Last October the Northern Line was closed for a few days because drivers refused to work following a safety alert.
Underground management attempted to keep the true reason for the line’s closure from passengers by putting up misleading posters at affected stations and, apparently, instructing front-line station staff not to give details.
In this newspaper the General Secretary of drivers’ union Aslef gave a convincing account of how private maintenance contractors were at fault.
Having privatised behind-the-scenes track and signal maintenance, London Underground is now doing the same for fare payments with the rapid rolling out of the Oyster system.
Oyster is essentially a Public-Private Partnership. Ken Livingstone, who once opposed privatisation in the Underground, but now wearing the hat of Chair of Transport for London, is keen that traditional tickets should give way to the Oystercard.
Since January those who still use paper tickets have been financially penalised.
Some have expressed concern that Oyster is another part of the surveillance state. Although it is possible to use Oyster without registering personal details (there is an extra fee involved, refundable only by having the card registered!), the push is for passengers to do so.
Details of journeys made are kept on record for eight weeks and we now know that the police are increasingly requesting personal travel information. Whilst London Underground is still “a company controlled by a local authority” under the Local Government Act of 1989, personal Oyster registration details are processed by private sector contractors. We are reassured that only “a few authorised individuals” can access this personal information. Wedges, of course, start with a thin end.
Oyster has been spun as time-saving for passengers. What is not stated is that station staff numbers will be reduced as ticket offices open for shorter times and might eventually go at outlying stations.
Recently, at Kentish Town station, there was a serious escalator accident. Luckily no-one was injured or killed.
As a regular Tube passenger (I am not a ‘customer’) the idea of closing some ticket offices does not fill me with confidence. I will not use Oyster…and am, therefore, paying my paper ticket “supplement”.
Eric Krieger
Haverstock Road
NW5

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, Camden New Journal, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@camdennewjournal.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Tuesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number. Letters may be edited for reasons of space.
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