cyberdongreen
AKA: cyberdonblue
Hi everybody.
...In regard to Network Rail, I have to agree with you pfx that on taking over from the much discredited Railtrack, they did a wonderful job in the first few of their existence especially in the field of improving safety. However, over the last five years their performance has dropped dramatically with the electrification of the Great Western Mainline debacle being only the tip of a very large iceberg in terms of neglect, financial mismanagement and total incompetence.
In the foregoing, within any private company producing the above problems “heads would have rolled”. That stated, equally, had any private or publicly share owned company produced the financial record that Network Rail has brought forward in the last five years, they would by now be not in existence and justifiably so.
Bill
Diplomatically sidestepping the political angle, I think we can look at the management structures of Railtrack, the current Network Rail setup and the former Nationalised BR Board of Directors as part of the problem of railways. Many of the people involved (previously and currently) are/were inherently elitist in their social standing and their attitudes and spent/spend much of their time off on what we called "jollies" allegedly promoting large scale projects - in BR days - or gathering friends and allies (contractors) - nowadays. It was all food and booze (and no doubt still is) and top class hotels at the taxpayers expense. In later years I met many of those who were previous BR Board members (through various Union and railway social functions that I attended at my own expense) and everyone of them were very upper class gentlemen who could drink enough wine or brandy to sink a battleship, believe me.
I mentioned in my earlier "rant" about the removal of former BR staff from the privatised TOC's but this also applies in the case of Railtrack too. Gone are the track gangs that were locally based and used to walk the "section" EVERY day. This is now a task undertaken by contractors ONCE A WEEK. Often these (well meaning, I'm sure) people are new to the trade and this particular task is seen as starting them off at the bottom of the ladder to give them a good grounding. However, years ago, this task was being carried out by very experienced men who saw potential problems - long before they ever surfaced to the untrained eye - and put things right at minimal cost.
Large scale relaying and construction tasks are all undertaken by contractors these days too. Massive machines costing millions of pounds are in use that someone has to pay for (though they're worth every penny from what I've seen of them.) Sadly though, no one seems to be able to tell the truth about the costs. They just see this great big public pot of gold and try to scoop out as much as they can for themselves. To hell with the consequences.
BR had a wealth of skilled trades right across the spectrum within it's ranks prior to privatisation. Many of these people now work for private contractors at 5 times the wage they were on under BR. Privatisation has been nothing more than a licence to print money for most of those involved. Train Driver's (Engineers) who were earning £11,000 per anum in 1990 are now on a starting salary of between £50,000 - £55,000 a year - and most of these new starters have absolutely no railway experience whatsoever.
It is, therfore, plainly obvious where the problems lie. Somebody needs to get all these contractors around the table and laugh in their faces. Then kick their backsides out the door before asking elsewhere - America? Japan? Germany? - for some serious quotes for the work that requires doing.
Do the words "Goose, Golden egg, and killing" spring to anyone's mind?
Dave