Severe delays are occuring

Monday morning and just one of my concerns is facing the unpleasant, overcrowded, possibly delayed service on the south western rail and jubilee line. It happens a lot and most of us simply face it, accept it and get on with it, and it’s the ‘getting on with it’ that bothers me.

Every morning, standing sandwiched between people in the underground, I think why do we have to put up with this, despite knowing the answer to the question – Yes, our benevolent rulers control it, and making sure their customers are happy isn’t their primary concern since they face no competition. Simple as that. I wish I could think of a simple solution to this issue, but like most I do struggle to come up with one. What worries me the most is the impact on the motivation for workers like me. No matter how hard I work to earn a good living and comfortable lifestyle, unless I can afford my own private transport, I will always face an unpleasant journey on the train.

India, in contrast, has better transport options for people ranging from buses, trains, different sizes of auto rickshaws, air conditioned taxis, and vans. People with different levels of income can decide what mode best suits them and choose the best option, and unlike the UK you don’t have to be filthy rich to choose the better options. One of my Chinese colleagues at work after an unpleasant train journey very rightly remarked on the fact that this is a developed country….surely we should expect better than the current poor service on the trains, or as I would put it, surely there could be an affordble option within reach of the middle classes?

Clearly the government is currently unable to manage the chaos during peak hours particularly on the trains and underground, and middle class people like me have to suffer almost everyday as a result. There is a feeling of being trapped in this vicious network created by the government. Can’t challenge it, can’t choose anything else, just get on with it. It’s frustrating and I keep thinking everyday as I step into that crowded train, there must be a solution to this.

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January 23, 2012

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5 responses to “Severe delays are occuring”

Tim Carpenter

January 23, 2012 at 7:51 am

China can kick people out of their homes, tunnel at will and build rapidly paid from taxes taken from the population.

In the UK we have property rights and that does somewhat affect works, plus some do desire less taxation.

If the Government got out of the rail transport business, I wonder how economic it would be for private capital to build new rail lines*.

Personally speaking one step forward would be to have rail flow through London by linking up all the various termini, a relic of past restrictions. Instead of ending at, say, Victoria, a train could stop at Marble Arch then on to Marylebone and on our to some suburban station where it could turn around and bring in another fresh crop of bodies for the mill.

New lines can be done. Singapore has added a circle line, a North East line and is planning a “Downtown”/North West line in the time I have been away (12 years). These are built, operating and already busy.

There is no reason why new lines cannot be built, but it becomes a question of funding, planning and fares. These are problems that require the will to overcome them.

*not forgetting an aspect of London crowding is due to it being (one of?) the first tube builders ever, using a smaller tunnel than almost all modern systems (that operate more standard rolling stock sizes).

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1. Simon Gibbs
  
  January 23, 2012 at 8:31 am
  
  Given those restrictions, which ultimately we benefit from, I wonder if the best option might be a double decker track, or simply some extra carriages.
  
  At the moment I’d settle for access to a table. Even a seat back table would be nice but I would actually pay more for access to a full sized table for my “laptop” to rest on. In rural areas this service is known as “first class”, but most operators do not offer it inside London for some reason, even on very short trains where all the right incentives exist for passengers to upgrade.
  
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Paul Marks

January 23, 2012 at 1:22 pm

There is a solution – get the government out of the way.

Not PRETEND to get the government out of the way (with the fake railway privitzation – with the “franchises” and other absurdities), but real PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL.

Of railways – and of roads.

Let them compete (against each other) and let the market (i.e. private owners and their customers – via the market process) decide pricing on roads and railways.

Of course, in the long term, transport may well become less and less important (as more people work from home – via video conferencing and so on), but transport still needs “sorting out”, and only the market place (a REAL market – not a government rigged, “regulated”, market) can do the job.

Remember – “market forces are really human choices”, whilst human beings do not have real control (via ownership of the roads and railways) then things will continue to be a mess.

By the way…..

Readers of the above should note that I am not exactly a fan of Financial Times style “division of ownership and control”. Unlike some libertarians I see nothing basically wrong with the CONCEPT of a corporation – but if taxes (for example Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax) and regulations (the endless web of anti shareowner and pro corporate manager regulations) manage to undermine control of corporation by real flesh and blood OWNERS (i.e. individual and family shareholders) then corporations become a mess.

As they are in the process of becomming both in Britain and the United States.

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Devika

January 25, 2012 at 1:13 pm

I agree with most of the suggestions above and am also a strong supporter of privatization which I feel would solve most of the underlying issues. But my problem with the current system as long as it stays is that we as customers, seem to have very little influence on the way things are run. My frustration is about finding the most effective medium to voice my concern as a customer as the whole system I believe currently undermines that and for obvious reasons. This is a monopoly created by the government and they have no fear of any competition stealing their market share even if they don’t satisfy their customers.

Watching the Panorama on BBC – Train Fares: Taken for a Ride, I learn about a regular rail commuter, Dom Utton, and about his unique method of complaining about train delays. For every minute of his time wasted, he makes sure the head of the train company knows about it. He writes emails about anything & everything which would take as long to read as the duration of his delay. But that approach can also be easily ignored as an email can be simply deleted.

I think there may be 2 potential ways to deal with this until the more fundamental solutions as highlighted above are implemented. The first one doesn’t look to the government to solve the problem and entails introducing a fleet a Tata Nano’s (the cheapest available car) to take some of the load off the trains & tubes. A system, with prices only slightly higher than a rail travelcard and meeting the needs of majority of the middle class commuters who can afford to pay slightly more for a comfortable journey. Now whether this is viable as a business model, requires planning, analysis and lots of investment. But this is an example of a private body offering choice to the customer (I guess very similar to the concept of private GPs). The second suggestion is to work on making people realize their rights as a customer and making the government realize that they can’t just take us for ride. The idea behind this method would be to pressurize the government to deliver as they promise or exit if they can’t handle it. But they need to be told. And that’s the bit that perplexes me. What can I possibly do that would effectively communicate my frustration with the system and influence them to take action.

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1. Simon Gibbs
  
  January 25, 2012 at 2:00 pm
  
  So, you are thinking a) start a competing business of some kind or b) force political change.
  
  a) As I mentioned recently, there is an argument for a Party which supports people who want to set up such businesses and help them through the process of resisting the inevitable ban/prosecution/regulation when the Government comes knocking.
  
  b) I’m not sure a single issue campaign would make much difference here. In fact I believe there already campaigns in this area (though probably anti-privatisation in mood), better to employ this as one of many arguments in favour of the libertarian state in general, i.e. a state where companies operate most of society non-politically.
  
  As you know I’m in favour of road based private mass-transit solutions, but would not want to give out the details because I actually think my solution would work rather well.
  
  As you also know, I’m in favour of a big well funded UK libertarian party that can get on and do exactly these kinds of thing.
  
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