Evidence C- public subsidy for all users must end
- Transport secretary Philip Hammond said above-inflation fare rises could disappear ifreforms proposed.
- He ruled out fare cuts, warning that the £5.2bn a year state subsidy is unsustainable. Fare payers currently spend £6.2bn a year on tickets.
- “Only 12% of the population use trains,” he said.
- Hammond spoke in advance of a repor recommending:
- • Cutting £1bn a year from costs by 2020
- • Handing control of routes to train operators
- • The removal of conductors
- • Increases in regulated fares such as commuter season tickets and off-peak fares on
- long-distance routes will be capped at RPI plus 3% (currently RPI plus 1%)
- • Taking empty carriages out of service outside rush hour.
Bob Crow, rail union General Secretary, said the main cause of inefficiency was a systemthat divided responsibility between government-backed Network Rail owning tracks and stations and 17 franchisees operating services under government contracts. “Attacking staff, ticket offices and putting up fares, while train operators are handed gold-plated contracts, is just an escalation of the worst practices of privatisation.”10/3/2012 The Guardian
Roy McNulty's rail report was a sad spectacle, the
elephant in the room so enormous it's a wonder he found space to breathe.
Commissioned by Labour but published under the coalition, it found the costs of
our fragmented system had created a 40% "efficiency gap" over our continental
neighbours and their mostly nationalised railways. Finance isn't the only place
the market failed.It is estimated around 2,000 firms now operate Britain's
trains. After a string of fatal crashes, culminating at Hatfield in 2000, the
safety record of the marketised system lay in tatters. Railtrack, the commercial
company setup to oversee track maintenance, was effectively renationalised,
becoming Network Rail. Fragmentation and the contested liabilities it creates
pose a serious barrier to safety. How long before Andrew Lansley's NHS
"kitemark" has its own Hatfield moment, none can say.In its last year before privatisation, our railways
required just £431m in public subsidy. By 2006, the figure had reached over
£6bn. Economists at UBS found British fares are now the most expensive in the
world. In 2009, the thousand-pound fare milestone was breached for the first
time – a fitting tribute to market "innovation". Even the Conservative former
transport minister, Philip Hammond, has conceded the trains have become "a rich
man's toy".For so-called "choice", if you arrive at Victoria and you
need a train to Brighton, there is one company and one price (£24.10). In
Europe, the same fare would cost an average £11. If we paid the same fares as
the French with their nationalised service, it is estimated we would save over
£4bn a year. Yes, if you dig around three years in advance and have a small team
of analysts at your disposal, you might just find a bargain. But woe betide the
swaggering Johnny who turns up at a British station and expects to just stroll
onto a train at a fair price; that braggadocio is a thing of the
past.Indeed, the fare system has become so complex that on one
route, London to Manchester, 34 different fares were found. Gerry Doherty, head
of the TSSA rail union, criticised the train operating companies (TOCs) for
"deliberately confusing" fare structures designed to ensure "passengers end up
paying for a dearer ticket at all times". If you find rail fares a confusing
mess, as even rail staff do, just wait until you have to rummage through 30-page
exemption documents to select your NHS top-up plan.For comfort, Britain now has the most crowded trains in
Europe. Passengers should remember that for the train operators, overcrowding is
highly profitable. The more passengers you can cram into a single cart, the more
revenue you raise from lower costs: profit. To understand how this dynamic might
play in healthcare, look at the PFI built hospitals: cutting bed numbers was a
primary source of savings.With the P word taboo, McNulty's hands were tied in
identifying the glaring problem with our rail system. Instead, he struck upon
the idea of "managing peak demand" by raising prices still further. Peak users
are mainly working people who do not choose their working hours; they are not
crushed into the busiest trains of the day by choice.
Stephen Joseph, chief executive of the Campaign for
Better Transport, suggests raising fares will simply "price people on lower
incomes off trains and make little difference to overcrowding". How will Lansley's market "manage demand" – again, no one
knows.Transport secretary Justine Greening is seeking to find
£3.5bn yearly savings by 2019 but there seems little hint of any coherent plan
behind it. The public are quite clear – they want rail renationalised. A 2009
poll showed 51% back the renationalisation of rail, including a third of
Conservative voters. Just 11% back the current model.
Rail privatisation has failed in the most unequivocal
terms. The public can see it, the unions can see it and the taxpayers can see
it. The only people who can't are the firms profiting from the mess and their
supporters in parliament. Our national health service is now hurtling down the
same broken track.
No comments:
Post a Comment