FGW "The Unacceptable Face Of Capitalism"

[whole diary]

[Lee]

First Great Western has been dubbed the "unacceptable face of capitalism" by a member of the South West Regional Assembly's Regional Transport Board (link below.)
http://thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144125&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232510&home=yes&more_nodeId1=232470&contentPK=20335524

Criticism levelled by Westcountry councillor Matt McTaggart - who is also responsible for transport policy at Cornwall County Council - was prompted by a high number of late trains during frequent business travel from either Bodmin Parkway or Liskeard stations.

The Lib-Dem politician, stressing that this was his personal view as a regular train user and not that of the board or the council, said:

"As someone who uses the train regularly, I'm not really impressed at all.

"It's the lateness of the trains. When you travel every morning and trains are late, you are late for deadlines.

"They're there to make money and it's at the public's expense. It's the unacceptable face of capitalism.

"The people that use it are not getting value for money. Since they started, they have not fulfilled what they should be doing."

The councillor stopped short of demanding the operator be stripped of its contract.

His remarks follow the outrage sparked when Julian Johnson, chairman of the Regional Transport Board, retracted his comment that the South West would be a "better place" without FGW^▸ (First Great Western).

Both Coun Johnson and FGW insisted it was making progress in improving services after executives from the train company met with board members.

But Coun McTaggart's remarks indicate dissatisfaction still exists.

Chris Lewis, a Conservative councillor on Torbay Council and one of the three Devon and Cornwall politicians sitting on the 15-man Regional Transport Board, was more philosophical.

Saying it was "too early to tell", he commented:

"It's like a football team. Kevin Keegan could have been sacked a few weeks ago; suddenly he wins 4-1. The new management team should be given time to settle down before you can judge.

"There has been criticism, much of it founded, and they knew that and brought in new management."

[devon_metro]

Anything for a bit of press attention eh? 

[Tim]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are there to make money! (what ever are you going tell me next - the Pope is of a certain denomination or that bears do certain things in the woods).

We really are mixed up about capitalism in this country and politicians really don't understand the purpose of business.  FGW do make money out of the public.  They have a legal obligation to their shareholders to do this.  If you don't agree with it (and I don't) then you ought to be compaigning for renationalisation or for FGW to be given a different sort of contract, not knocking FGW for making a profit.

FGW have many failings but making a profit is hardly one of them.  Under te system that the politicians have set up and which FGW must work under making a profit counts as a sucess.   

[stroud700]

Making profit isn't the issue, all commercial concerns must.

The issues are, do the railways need to be run by commercial businesses and if so, are we getting value for money for the subsidy they receive.

What is always my gripe is the level of subsidy received by TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) and NR^» (Network Rail - home page), when compared to what BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) received!

[Conner]

Welcome to the forum Stroud 700.
I see you have your name and avatar as a HST^▸ (High Speed Train) name, were you involved in this is some way?

[stroud700]

Sadly not, just a long-suffering commuter!

[Chris2]

Even the Senior executives at First are complaining that the service needs to be improved.
http://www.railpro.co.uk/issues/pdfs/apr_whole_issue.pdf on page 13.
http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144125&command=displayContent&sourceNode=232510&home=yes&more_nodeId1=232470&contentPK=20343599

[Conner]

Welcome to the forum Chris2, if First Group managers are admitting something is wrong surely this will get FGW^▸ (First Great Western) going.

[Lee]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) are there to make money! (what ever are you going tell me next - the Pope is of a certain denomination or that bears do certain things in the woods).

We really are mixed up about capitalism in this country and politicians really don't understand the purpose of business.  FGW do make money out of the public.  They have a legal obligation to their shareholders to do this.  If you don't agree with it (and I don't) then you ought to be compaigning for renationalisation or for FGW to be given a different sort of contract, not knocking FGW for making a profit.

Although Matt McTaggart makes clear that he is expressing a personal view regarding his comments about FGW and "The Unacceptable Face Of Capitalism" , would you recommend that he uses his roles at Cornwall County Council and on the Regional Transport Board to campaign on the issues you suggest, Tim?

[tramway]

Still beleive the best discussion regarding the current franchising arrangements can be found here.

http://firstgreatwestern.blogspot.com/2007/03/profit-and-service-perfect-bedfellows.html

[Tim]

yes - I think so.  I have no problem with passengers slagging off the TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) (afterall it is the TOCS that sold them the tickets) but it does annoy me when politicians who actually have some power to change the system critise the TOCS for failings that are mainly a result of the system rather than of any individual company.  This is not because I feel sorry for the likes of FGW^▸ (First Great Western) (they are big enough and ugly enough to look after themselves) but because it is simply spin designed to make the politician look good but doesn't actually do anything to improve anything.  

I think that the regional bodies (regional assemblies or whatever) ought to have a bigger role in transport whether or not they run the services themselves or contract them out to private companies.  A couple of years ago I was  at a meeting in Bristol organised by the SWRDA^» (South West Regional Development Agency - about) to discuss the encouragement of a biotech industry in the SW.  The conference ended with a panel discussion where the bigwigs of SWRDA asked the attendees what they woudl like to see SWRDA do to make investment in the SW more attractive.  I think that they were expecting to hear complains about training, networking, marketing, investment and appeals for more grant funding, but the overwhelming issues were to do with transport.  People wanted, in no particular order - 1) roads in Cornwall and Devon that could cope with the tourist influx, 2) flights from Newquay to European business cities rather than holiday destinations and 3) improvemnst on the GWML^▸ (Great Western Main Line) including earlier trains to London and a sub-3 hour Plymouth London time.   In fact the only non-transport issue that was raised was also one of infrastructure - a MD of a factory in North Cornwall saying he was going to leave the county because the electricity supply to his factory was insufficeinet for him to run all his machines at the same time! The SWRDA people listened politely and told us that all of these things were outside of their remit.   The SWRDA sit on a large budget and actually listen to what business wants but they are unable to take the action to give what businesses want the most (transport so execs can get to meetings and so staff can get to work on time) , because decsions on such matters are taken by the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).