Great Western Coffee Shop

A campaign to end the "systematic weaknesses" of Network Rail which cause "unnecessary" chaos to travellers has been launched by a group of MPs (link below.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7468116.stm

The 29 Co-operative Party MPs, who work with the Labour Party, want the public to have more of a say over the way the rail infrastructure firm is governed.

They say if it were run as efficiently as the European average there would be cash for 1,000 new rail coaches yearly.

But Network Rail said it was already "incredibly accountable" to the public.

There are 29 MPs, nine members of the Scottish Parliament and four Welsh Assembly members among the Co-operative Party's 8,000-strong membership.

A party spokesman said the People's Rail campaign aimed "to remedy the systemic weaknesses in Network Rail that have repeatedly and unnecessarily caused chaos to the travelling public".

He said the current governance structure of Network Rail was failing passengers and the rail industry.

The campaign calls for all citizens to be given the right to become individual members of Network Rail.

The company would give all of its members the right to elect governor representatives to a members' council, which would replace the role currently fulfilled by its existing membership.

Industry members could continue to be nominated by their respective interest groups - from train operating companies or trade unions.

But Network Rail insisted the public had always been able to become members.

He said any accusation of "failing passengers" was "very unfair".

Britain had a "very high-performing railway", with more passengers using the railway than at any time since 1946 and "record punctuality" of trains.

I've just posted on the 'Social Enterprise and the Railways' thread the contact details for this campaign. Here they are again: <www.peoplesrail.org.uk>.

Hugh Muir's comments on NW's 'transparency' are instructive.

Hope readers can support it.