Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Cue a lot of predictable huffing a puffing from unreconstructed leftie trade unions who wanted East Coast to remain State-operated.
I'm really glad Stagecoach/Virgin have got this. They have made a grand job of the WCML and I predict, over the next few years, they will comfortably improve on the performance of DOR on the East Coast. Then we can (hopefully) put to bed the ridiculous idea that bringing back British Rail is a big or clever thing to do.
|
I have often championed re-nationalisation of Franchises, because I do think it can work. It worked brilliantly in the case of the South Eastern railway, although, having said that, it would be almost impossible for any other operator to run the service as badly as Connex did. South Eastern Trains introduced serious, and almost instant, improvements to the service. Trains were suddenly running on time, with the correct number of carriages. Passenger information systems were overhauled (seriously, what dimwit really thought it was a good idea to put the signalling team in a building on the other side of Kent from the team that runs the passenger information systems?).
Now, the service is provided by the privatised South Eastern Railways and has mostly (in my experience) kept the standards that South Eastern Trains managed. However, I've noticed that the service is slipping a little. Little things, like the different passenger information systems sometimes give incorrect or conflicting information (several times this week, I've been told by their app that my train has just left my station, while I am standing on the platform, and being told by the Platform indicator screen that the train is due in a few minutes, only to have the app correct itself all of a sudden).
Don't get me wrong. I do not think that wholesale re-nationalisation is the best idea for every franchise. When it comes down to it, as long as a franchise operator can provide me a relatively cheap, reliable service, I don't really care that much whether they are private or publicly owned.