Letters


Wasn’t privatisation meant to encourage new entrants? B


R was ‘inefficient’ – privatisation would bring new entrants, fresh ideas, new routes and all that the free market could offer. The railway now costs the taxpayer at least twice as much as under BR and McNulty’s paper says the government does not support any new ‘open access’ newcomers.


So, new ideas, new entrants and new routes no longer welcomed! So much for the free market enterprise the privatised railway would bring now that the Treasury might lose out. Always remember, the railway was privatised in 1994 on 1 April – a day known in times gone by as All Fools Day – or am I just an old cynic?


John Edser FCILT, Cheshire


Greening, currently overseeing the activities of the platitude strewn Department for Transport. David Smith Western RAILS Consultancy Wiltshire


St Pancras should carry freight I


was amazed at the comments made by Nicola Shaw, High Speed One chief executive,


as reported in your news item ‘St Pancras receives French freight service (April 2012 issue). She has promised to keep St


Pancras a passenger-only operation and that it will not become a freight terminal. Not so long ago, when we had


a ‘proper’ railway, trains delivered Red Star/Night Star parcels/TCEX parcels directly into stations without any problems and, of course, we did this in order to bring the clients their parcels into the town centre, rather than have them sent to a depot 25 miles out of town to be transferred on to trucks to get into the town. At one time we called it Rail Express Systems and all trains in the UK


participated in the service. Express goods (parcels) are not ‘freight’ as such, and to reach London, to make it viable, they would need to come into the centre and not on the edge of the congested London Orbital motorway. There is nothing new in this and


railways still do this in many parts of the world, but not anymore, of course, in the UK, since privatisation. St Pancras should be able to handle traffic like this and, if it cannot do this, what is it there for, other than selling perfume and other retail products?


Incidentally, Eurostar was in the ‘Express’ business for a number of years. Bob Hex


Semi-retired international railwayman S


North is very different to Portsmouth situation


teve Hyde’s letter in your March 2012 issue comments accurately upon the situation


in the north of England, an area with which I am myself well familiar. Two, three and, sometimes, four


coach trains are often inadequate, and not only at peak periods, when overcrowding causes great distress. However, the position on the Portsmouth Direct line, with which Mr Hyde seeks to draw comparison, is quite different. Until implementation of the


2006 franchise, main line express services were correctly diagrammed for main line express rolling stock. Since early 2007, uncomfortable Class 450 suburban rolling stock has been inappropriately diagrammed for a high proportion of these top link services. Where the standard of


accommodation for which Portsmouth Direct line passengers are paying has been confiscated, service users infer, with justification, they are being defrauded by SWT. Bruce Oliver, Hampshire


L Plans were lost after privatisation


iving in Birmingham, I am able to watch the steady progress on the Birmingham


Gateway project easily, but it is always of interest to read your


reports on progress, as so much of the most interesting activity is necessarily hidden from public gaze. However, I must take issue with a small element of your article in the April issue, where Peter Plisner states that no proper drawings of the 1960s station exist. Up until privatisation, and for some years subsequently, extensive drawings in microfiche form existed at the records office of the former British Rail London Midland region in Birmingham. I know, because I made use of


them, as did many others, when employed there and subsequently in the privatised industry. There were details right down


to reinforcement and prestressing details of the various beams and frameworks. What did become apparent


in latter years, with the regular reorganisations of Railtrack and Network Rail, was that the ease of access to, and completeness of, the records appeared to me to become steadily worse. Raymond Parry, Birmingham


MAY/JUNE 2012 PAGE 13


www.railimages.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36