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If we can’t move, London doesn’t move!
• IF London’s transport system fails, London fails.
If people can’t easily and reasonably cheaply get to the capital to work, play and spend the capital disintegrates. If we can’t move, London doesn’t move. Then it dies.
So why is transport provision a lottery rather than a service?
We all know that many people who work here aren’t lucky enough to live here. Spare a pitying thought for those who have to commute along the east coast main line.
This stretch encapsulates so many of the stupidities of rail franchising. GNER owned the franchise (a phrase I deliberately choose over “provided the service”) until 2007 when that company surrendered it. That is, they decided they weren’t making as much money as they thought they would, so they strolled away. Someone else could sort it out.
In stepped National Express. “We’ll take it over,” they said. “And we think we’ll make so much money out of passengers in the next five years that we’re willing to pay the government £1.4billion”
Then, two years later, in July this year, the company decided it wasn’t making enough money.
All of this rather begs the question: “What do the public want from a railway?” Imagine you are sitting at one of London’s rail terminals and you want to go to another town.
You are late and cold. What do you want from your transport provider? Do you think: “I greatly admire a rail company that provides a reliable service.”
Or do you think: “I sincerely hope that National Express manages to wheedle more than £1.4billion in profits this year.”
National Express told the government that they couldn’t be bothered to run the east coast line unless they could renegotiate the contract. To his credit, the transport minister Lord Adonis refused to make any concessions and took the franchise back.
My union, ASLEF, which represents train drivers, wants it left in the public sector.
It seems to us inescapable logic that a train service not seeking to make huge profits can find the resources to improve a service better than a company that is desperate to cream off dividends for its investors.
When we put this issue to the Labour Party conference and the Trades Union Congress this year, not a hand was raised in opposition.
If you have views or you would just like to know more, the ASLEF King’s Cross branch has organised an open meeting to discuss it in the Chancellor’s Rooms, Hughes Parry Hall, University of London, Cartwright Gardens WC1H 9EF from 2pm to 4pm on November 7.
Frank Dobson and Ken Livingstone will be coming along.
Keith Norman
General Secretary, ASLEF
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