Railways in a "state of crisis"

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From August 2023 - so 2 months ago - Rail 990: Leaderless and rudderless, hapless Harper and his Merriman - came up on one of my feeds

August is always a good excuse for inaction but this dying Tory administration has taken it to extremes. The railways are in a perpetual crisis and yet paralysis and obfuscation are the order of the day, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

It almost seems as if Hapless Harper (pic) and his Merriman have left the railways in a state of limbo deliberately while they go off on summer jollies having lit the blue touch paper of booking office closures and run away before the fireworks went off. They have also stood by like disinterested observers while the industrial dispute which has dogged the industry for more than a year remains unresolved. They are presumably acting at the behest of the helicopter hopping Prime Minister who seems to show more interest in pulling pints, despite being a teetotaller, than in anything to do with the railway. Indeed, I understand that much of the failure to address railway issues is a result of the lack of interest in Number 10 which sees the whole network as an irritating burden on taxpayers used solely by the unwashed non car owning minority. Jeremy Hunt, at Number 11, is complicit, too, merely viewing the railway in terms of how much subsidy it is using, rather than a key component of the nation’s infrastructure.

Speaking to rail managers, it is clear there is a loss of confidence in the future of the industry. The discussion often centres on just how much damage can be wreaked before the other lot take over after the general election but there is little confidence that the difficulties can be sorted out quickly even then ...

Two months on - what do we see?   Do you agree that the railways were in a state of crisis when the article was written?  Is it getting any better - or worse? 

[Witham Bobby]

From August 2023 - so 2 months ago - Rail 990: Leaderless and rudderless, hapless Harper and his Merriman - came up on one of my feeds

August is always a good excuse for inaction but this dying Tory administration has taken it to extremes. The railways are in a perpetual crisis and yet paralysis and obfuscation are the order of the day, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

It almost seems as if Hapless Harper (pic) and his Merriman have left the railways in a state of limbo deliberately while they go off on summer jollies having lit the blue touch paper of booking office closures and run away before the fireworks went off. They have also stood by like disinterested observers while the industrial dispute which has dogged the industry for more than a year remains unresolved. They are presumably acting at the behest of the helicopter hopping Prime Minister who seems to show more interest in pulling pints, despite being a teetotaller, than in anything to do with the railway. Indeed, I understand that much of the failure to address railway issues is a result of the lack of interest in Number 10 which sees the whole network as an irritating burden on taxpayers used solely by the unwashed non car owning minority. Jeremy Hunt, at Number 11, is complicit, too, merely viewing the railway in terms of how much subsidy it is using, rather than a key component of the nation’s infrastructure.

Speaking to rail managers, it is clear there is a loss of confidence in the future of the industry. The discussion often centres on just how much damage can be wreaked before the other lot take over after the general election but there is little confidence that the difficulties can be sorted out quickly even then ...

Two months on - what do we see?   Do you agree that the railways were in a state of crisis when the article was written?  Is it getting any better - or worse? 

Redundancies amongst the teams that look after infrastructure maintenance does not look like a healthy development

[Mark A]

As is the (unverified) news that Network Rail are selling the likes of a high output ballast cleaner, and said bit of kit is leaving the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Mark

[IndustryInsider]

Definitely in a state of crisis.  Wolmar is Labour obviously, and I don’t always agree with him, but I think in this case political party leanings don’t really muddy the water at all, and what he says is spot on.

[Red Squirrel]

The railway has friends and enemies across the political spectrum. In general politicians like the economic benefits that railways bring, but seek to reduce the costs that go with those benefits. They try to strike a balance.

That’s the consensus. But I think it’s fair to say that since Johnson’s exit, the enemies of rail are in the ascendant. Johnson, May and Cameron used trains. Sunak’s transport policy seems to be based on building helipads and filling potholes.

[grahame]

Christian Wolmar - "Railways in a state of crisis"  (Voting closed: Yesterday at 09:01:11 am)

Totally agree   - 17 (54.8%)
Agree somewhat   - 11 (35.5%)
It's no better or worse than usual   - 1 (3.2%)
No - whilst there are some issues it's mostly good   - 2 (6.5%)
The railway are fine   - 0 (0%)
Don't know   - 0 (0%)

Oh dear ... I can't remember a time since I started this rail advocacy thing that I (and others) have felt less confident in the state of our railways.  Perhaps concern was greater in late spring and early summer of 2020 when Covid was locking us down and friends and indeed some senior rail advocates were passing away, but there was a feeling that "we're all in this together and doing what we can" which gave us the motivation of working together.