Wednesday 1 July 2009

National Express won't be the last rail company to throw in the towel

It is negative great surprise to see National Express handing back the East Coast Main Line franchise.British railway companies stopped up making profits around 1914, yet they were supposed to raise enough from the line to satisfy their shareholders and pay £1.4bn to the administration over the after that seven-and-a-half years.I doubt that National Express will be the last company to find there is negative future in the privatised railway business.It is not as if the private railway feels additional free. Quite the reverse.Ever since privatisation railway stations have been decorated with notices warning the companies' customers about their behaviour and threatening them with all sorts of penalties and reprisals if they think they can pay for the company's services on the train.This is partly the result of charitable a private company an effective monopoly and partly since those companies are desperate to raise money to pay the administration and their shareholders.Then this position is overlaid with New Labour's target culture. Never mind if you give your customers a good service, just make sure you meet the centrally decided target.Which is why this twilight it was announced at Leicester that the train I was waiting for would not call at Market Harborough, as advertised, but run not-stop to St Pancras instead. Sod the customers. Just make sure you meet the administration target.All of which explains why the privatised railway has taken far additional public money than British Rail ever did, yet has in many ways less concern for its passengers than the nationalised railway did.
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