Last one out turn of the lights. (Railway crisis)

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Product:	Railway crisis
Date:	24/01/02 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of trains

Disadvantages: Unions showing off, Expensive

I think any Brit is a pessimist when it comes to catching public transport. You have all stood at the station on that occasional extremely expensive train journey expecting the worse.
A train is late by ten minutes then though it doesn’t really make a whole lot of difference from getting from A to B.
But for the more vociferous commuter traffic that are often more vocal and stressed who take most of the countries train journeys it’s a bloody nightmare day in day out.

Two thirds of all workers going to their jobs on the trains are in the affluent South East with these people most likely to have the clout to complain and be heard.
Bus services have always been crap and deregulation has bought it to its knees yet there are no pressure groups for the predominately working man trawling to work and most likely to be sacked for persistent lateness.

Just as many bus companies run the service into the ground locally regardless of people trying to get to work. The subsidies from the government to provide smaller less used routes are pocketed then those buses cut to the bone.
Railtrack gets twice the subsidy it did when the rail network was publicly run with most of that going to support the share price and not improved safety.
When Presscott/Campbell took on the trains after Hatfield you just knew the whole thing was going to go to hell.

The trains are like the hospitals, police teaching or any public service you would like to mention. As they are accountable to public funds then theres little room for sensible spending and fiscally run businesses.
The public wedge going into Railtrack is mostly used to support that failing share price and without another two billion it will be bankrupt within six months. There fore Byers has no choice but to give them that cash.

Commuters are looking forward to the next six months on the rails like Bin Laden is to the opening ceremony for the US winter Olympics.Delays a
re up dramatically across the country with complaints going through the outer reaches of the known universe.
Arriva trains that run most of the Northern Network are out on strike today because they are jealous of the pay rises given to some of the smarmy southern train companies. This of course means more strikes to come as the animosity spreads.

In my opinion the network is too big and I reckon Blair is trying to collapse it like he did with agriculture. Farmers now have to have a green license to get their hands on the lucrative subsidies and set aside money if they are to stay in business. By limiting the amount of people farming you can cut back on wasted public funds.
The trains to will be cut down radically as the smaller lines disappear over the horizon and most subsidy is spent on getting those influential South East punters into work on time.

This crisis was initiated by figures in New Labor to change the shape of British railways. Theres no new money coming in regardless of what the spin docs say and things are going to get a whole lot worse.
That 2 billion is still needed on top of what’s coming in and it will leave the train companies no option but to cut services to the bone .Its cheaper for them to cancel a train than being fined for every late arrival.
Everyone is being forced back into their cars pushing up petrol revenue and speeding fines for Brown’s cabinet.

Northamptonshire has just announced 6.5 million pounds raised for the treasury through speed cameras. That’s an incredible 1000,000 plus tickets at sixty quid for a population just over two hundred thousand. That works out at around one ticket per family a year.
Its almost as if the commuters and drivers are being sourced as the countries biggest revenue earner to force down the politically incorrect income tax rises.

The other options we have to get to work are soon to be hit by congestion parking. Livingstone wants to
charge people a fiver a day to get into the heart of London.Most of those people are workers who will pass that charge on to the customer.
Our council boyed by the success of having forty traffic wardens bringing in 30 grand a week in Northampton now send their wardens out to industrial estates to nab unsuspecting honest drivers.
I mean why the fluck are their double yellows and restrictions on places like that.

To get to London from here it costs 17-50 for a railcard that allows you to go on all train services with in zone two. But to come back the next day you are talking 35 quid!.How ridiculous is that to encourage people to take train journeys.I would go three times as much if it was a tenner a time.
And with the leadership of the unions up for grabs after the death of their leader you are seeing unions flexing their muscles as they pose for the top job.

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