Public Vs. Private

Public vs. Private

I am an unashamed train spotter. As a teenager I was often seen at  the end of a platform with my copy of "Locoshed" and a pencil (to record the numbers on the engines as they passed).

A part of it was that I was enchanted with the idea of travel. I was excited about what may lay ahead for the people that I saw on their journey's. I also liked the noise that filthy great piston engines made as they sped by.

For noise and commitment piston engines out do steam and jet power. 

I know that steam enthusiasts  are all very romantic and that but the comparison I make is that a steam engine at full tilt is like watching a US sprinter in the 100m against Usain Bolt. They may look good but they are all arms and legs and no coordination and are going to finish last. Steam trains just make so much fuss. Diesels are the epitome of controlled aggression. Well the larger ones any way. 

Way back in 1979 I stood close to Platform 2 at Durham station just to see a Deltic roll past at full tilt. Awesome monsters were they. The train that replaced them wasn't so bad mind you. Some years later and I was on the West of England main line and a Cardiff express sprinted past. We were extolled to stand back from the platform edge but non present was prepared for the whoosh and roar of a speeding IC125 8 feet from your head!

 

As for jets? Well during air displays the big jets roar past and feel like they are ripping the very fabric of the universe in two but a fly by of the Battle of Britain Squadron and you just get the feeling that these planes mean business. The engine note is at first a whining whistle of superchargers followed by the grinding roar of 24 cylinders compressing and discharging in a cacaphonic rumble that then bubbles off into the distance. It just feels better.

So where was I going with this? Trains. Okay so I got lost in a childlike revery there for a second. Bite me, as the Americans say!

I have just read an article on the BBC website that puts a for and against argument for returning the UK railways to public ownership. What perturbs me most is that I found under the political banner of the website

I work in a very  large nationalised industry and I have to say that Political interference is the bain of the industry. Each new government tries to implement it's own direction and it just feels like it's all change or about face. I know I like to have a pot shot at management types but there are people making careers out of adapting their bits of the service to the new philosophy, running around reorganising things. That's all they do. 

So when there is a call to nationalise the railways I am wary. I remember the old British Rail. It suffered badly from lack of investment.  But it also became a political football. Industrial action could become a direct action on government policy and the needs of employee and user are lost to the soldiers of political fortune.

The Future of the railways?

Now that is not to say I am in favour of privatisation either. London commuters have found that overcrowding at peak times is a necessary evil for the rail operators because extra capacity costs money. Galling though that may be for the commuter who pays thousands of pounds for the right to sway in a corridor. 

I read many of the trade publications and there are many talented people out their who are already running the railways. If some way could be found to let them do the job they love without interference from a politician who knows nothing about railways and any way will get moved on in the next cabinet shuffle then I would support that. 

The argument for privatisation was that a company would want to make a profit so it would not be wasteful. It would give the railways a direct incentive to improve the efficiency - customer power and all that. The problem for me is that if there is profit I would rather see it reinvested into the railway system than creamed off for a hedge fund or foreign investor.