I guess my mate isn't alone in his views. He feels that the biggest problem with the railways is Mr Crow. Then I read this in my favourite paper, the Guardian today.
The "improved" franchise regime being sought by the Association of Train Operating Companies should fill rail users with dread (Letters, 7 July). Atoc represents the combined interests of shareholders who have been the beneficiaries of massive corporate welfare in the form of more than £11bn in public subsidy in the last 10 years. Rail franchising remains essentially a crude device for converting public money into private profit – approaching £400m across the Tocs for the most recent financial year – to the detriment of rail users and workers.
The investment boasted of by Atoc comes from fare-payers and taxpayers – the private sector's most notable contribution is to siphon money out of the industry. Now we are a Con-Dem nation, Atoc is baying to be given more of the public funds, in the form of longer franchises and what they call "vertical integration" – which would amount to rail infrastructure being fragmented and divvied up among the private operators to be sweated for even more profit. Atoc's demands need careful interpretation: for "drive down costs" read "remove guards and station staff, and downgrade safety to maximise profits"; and for "a commercially rigorous approach" read "ringfence our profits while hammering passengers and rail staff". This is the reverse of what should happen. Franchising isn't the solution – it's part of the problem.
Couldn't have put it better myself. For those of us lucky enough to use the rotten service provided by First Capital Connect, we already know that these awful TOC's (train operating companies) are only interested in profits. They know that passengers are only there to be bled dry and treated like cattle.
They know that owning a rail franchise is a license to print money and the government doesn't care how badly you do it. If they did, they would have stripped First of the Thameslink franchise last year when they weren't employing enough drivers to run the service, resulting in a near 50% reduction in services and appalling punctuality stats.
I am deeply suspicious of any organisation which represents the interests of TOC's. The interests of TOC's are most certainly not the interests of passengers.
Anyway, who do you think wrote the letter to the Guardian? None other than Bob Crow. I'm not a member of his fan club, but anyone who has suffered from the trials and tribulations of FCC's Thameslink knows that whilst Unions cause some problems, incompetent management cause far worse ones. Bob Crow earns £103,000 per annum to represent his members. Moir Lockhead, boss of First Group gets paid £802,000 per annum to run a train service. Which one is the more overpaid? Which one has helped Great Britain's railways prosper and the passengers get to their destination on time? Sadly, despite the fact that these two earn just short of a million quid a year between them, you won't get any answers from either of them as to what they will be doing to ensure that the people who pay both of their wages (the passenger) will get a good deal.
Sadly for Great Britain PLC, whilst we have the likes of Moir Lockhead running companies like First Capital Connect, we'll have the likes of Bob Crow running the Unions. And that my friend, is why we are all F*****D. Have a nice weekend.
