À procura de textos e pretextos, e dos seus contextos.

31/07/2009

G.B. - When the absurdity becomes the norm

Train drivers' union ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman said earlier this week that rail franchising "started out as a pantomime, then became a farce and has now become a folly.

"It is clear that this system is not working and it is no way to treat a public service. Private franchises lead to short-term solutions rather than the long-term strategy we need."

This summary of the disaster that is rail privatisation in Britain is shared by the other rail unions RMT and TSSA, by those who want the most efficient use of public investment - in short, a large majority of the people.

Against this common-sense approach stand the privateers, their shareholders and the main parties in Parliament, led by new Labour.

In opposition, Tony Blair committed a future Labour government to a "publicly owned and publicly accountable" British Rail and, two years before taking office, he called privatisation "absurd - a hotchpotch of private companies linked together by a gigantic bureaucratic paper chase of contracts."

And Blair forecast that, "as the public learn more about the chaos and cost, their anger at this folly will grow."

He was right. Public anger has grown, but that fury and frustration has been directed against Labour because Blair's government, at the insistence of Gordon Brown when chancellor, decided that it was too expensive to return to the public sector.

This is even though the government could have simply waited for contracts to expire and absorbed privatised routes without having to pay compensation.

Even when private train operating companies (TOCs) have reneged on contracts, the government has resisted the public option and decided that private is best.

Unelected Transport Secretary Lord Adonis is determined to continue with this discredited practice with the East Coast Main Line after a subsidiary of National Express walked away from its seven-year £1.4 billion franchise commitment at a cost to the privateer of just £72 million.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow commented: "National Express have made nearly half a billion pounds out of the railways in 10 years and have sucked in £2.5bn in public subsidies over the same period.

"With the collapse of their East Coast franchise, that is reward for failure on a massive scale."

His TSSA counterpart Gerry Doherty called the franchise system "a lottery in which the passenger always loses and the private rail companies always win. The companies get the profits in the good times and are bailed out by passengers and taxpayers in the bad times."

Despite the hot air exhaled by the privatising Tory government of John Major about privateers supplying investment for a neglected rail network, most investment still emanates from government.

Brown won some favourable comment for his recent announcement of a £1.1bn rail electrification programme for the Swansea-London and Liverpool-Manchester routes, which, said Adonis, would mean "faster, quieter and more efficient trains which break down less often."

Rail electrification is essential not only to develop Britain's infrastructure but also on grounds of environmental protection and, while the proposed investment is welcome, it is far too timid, especially since only one-third of the network is currently electrified.

In times of recession, rail modernisation and network extension can be a massive boost to employment in the construction industry and, with government assistance, it could form a focus for domestic production of locomotives, rolling stock and track rather than act as a sponge for imports from countries that have taken a more far-sighted and less roads-lobby-influenced approach.

Compare Britain's £1.1bn with last month's announcement that China had invested 168.9 billion yuan (about £15bn) in fixed-asset investment in railways in the first five months of this year, up 120 per cent on the previous year.

China's Ministry of Railways said that this included 149 billion yuan for railway infrastructure construction, up 161.8 per cent from a year ago, 3.3 billion yuan for track upgrading and 16.55 billion yuan for new trains.

The country built a total of 1,942.5km of new rail lines in this five-month period.

China's strategic approach, which contributes to its ongoing high growth rate, contrasts with the get-rich-quick obsession of Britain's rail privateers, whose priority is shareholder value rather than service to passengers or contribution to the wider economy.

Doherty's comment about good-time profits and bad-time bail-outs was confirmed by the demand by the big five TOCs - First, National Express, Stagecoach, Arriva and Go-Ahead - at a meeting in January with then transport secretary Geoff Hoon for hundreds of millions of pounds in extra subsidies.

The economic downturn had led to a reduction in the number of passengers on which they had based their financial projections, so, like Oliver Twist, they begged for a little more.

The government has, in response, allowed them to worsen service quality by cancelling many restaurant cars, halving the length of already overcrowded trains and cutting employments levels for platform, ticket office and cleaning staff.

In addition, because companies are allowed to raise fares in the new year on the basis of the previous July's inflation rate, the TOCs were able to increase so-called "regulated" fares, which account for 60 per cent of all journeys, including season tickets, by an average of 6 per cent this year at a time when inflation was negative.

Steven Joseph, the executive director of the Campaign for Better Transport, formerly Transport 2000, said: "Rail is the low-carbon way to travel, but passengers are being priced out with above-inflation fare increases.

"The government's policy is to reduce investment in the railways and make passengers pay more. Instead, it should invest more, regulate fares and help people to reduce their carbon footprint."

The TOCs plead hardship as a result of the harsh economic climate, but what are the facts?

Stagecoach announced a slight fall in annual profits to April, down £3.4m to a still very respectable £55.7m, which did not prevent it from increasing its dividend. The same applies to First Group, whose rail profits dipped to £94.2m in March from £120m a year earlier.

In contrast, Arriva rail profits zoomed by 349 per cent to £33.7m from £7.5m, partially due to taking over the Cross Country franchise from Virgin.

Go-Ahead registered a 1 per cent increase in half-year profits to the end of 2008, touching £58.9m. Despite these figures, it announced plans to cut 300 jobs in Southeastern.

For all the engineered atmosphere of gloom, the big five increased dividends to shareholders by between 10 per cent and 33 per cent, which shows that recessions don't hit us all equally.

"The big five monopoly operators have been minting it at the public's expense for more than a decade, handing over tens of millions of pounds in dividends on the back of public subsidy, overcrowding and massive fares rises," says RMT leader Crow.

The Commons transport committee, which reported last Monday, condemned the higher fares fiasco while urging longer-term franchises, which would be more "passenger focused" by monitoring passenger satisfaction along with cycle and car parking space targets.

It also insisted that companies which default on a franchise should not be allowed to operate another and proposed that the East Coast Main Line be run in the public sector "as a benchmark against which to compare the performance of other types of franchises."

Better to simply grasp the nettle, recognise the contradiction between public service and private greed and back majority public opinion by demanding an end to the privatisation nightmare and return our railways to common ownership and control.

Morning Star - 30.07.09

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