Letters Readers air their views about the railway industry and Rail Professional


Trainofthought A


Please email your letters to: letters@railpro.co.uk or fax to: 01223 327356. Or post to The Editor,Rail Professional, 275 Newmarket Road, Cambridge CB5 8JE. Letters may be edited for length.


The price of running late trains


tribunal in Paris recently gave a judgement in the case of a 25-year-old


lady, who alleged she had lost her job because her trains were repeatedly late.


The tribunal found that


SNCF were lacking in their ‘contractural engagements’, in delivering her to Lyon late on a number of occasions and thus making her late for work. The Tribunal stated that ‘la


ponctualité est une obligation contractuelle’ (which surely needs no translation!) and ordered SNCF to pay the young woman a refund of €1,500 in amends. A lesson for the UK, perhaps? Eric Stuart France


Double-tracking deceptively delayed


F


ull credit for Scotland on Sunday’s exposure of the Scottish


government’s broken promises over plans to restore vital double track sections and essential passing loops on the Glasgow/Edinburgh to Inverness main line, whose absence will further weaken rail’s competitive credibility and reliability against an ever improving A9 road. Sly ‘deferral’ of


this promised railway improvement is symptomatic of similar cynical scrapping or downgrading of other previously planned rail modernization projects, eg shrinking the Edinburgh Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP electrification) by downgrading the Cumbernauld commuter line, scrapping of planned rail links to Edinburgh and Glasgow Airports and halting the planned Aberdeen Crossrail commuter expansion project.


AUGUST 2012 PAGE 7


Previously well-developed plans for Glasgow Crossrail have similarly been discarded along with the potential commuter benefits from reopening Edinburgh’s suburban line. Scottish government calls for more capital investment in transport infrastructure are welcome, but seriously devalued by its selective abandonment of planned rail improvements essential to achieving major social/ economic and environmental benefits within a more sustainable transport strategy. Ken Sutherland Bearsden, Glasgow


Cost saving – unfair balance?


I read, with interest, in


Rail Professional of the considerable lengths that


Network Rail, train companies and many others appear to be currently going to cut costs etc in line with the current


government demands. Sadly, we do seem to be, once again, faced with yet another round of closing ticket offices and losing valuable staff – always the easy option. However, what of the wasted £millions that still emanate via the offices of the Department of Transport (DfT), of which no one seems to have any control. I say this in relation to the farcical franchise procedure. It is noted that the


Northern Rail franchise has been given a new extension, which looks to be a sensible move. However, in the case of the Anglia franchise, instead of giving the incumbent an extension, the whole process was put out to tender and a new company given the reins for just over two years when the franchise will again be up for grabs. I cannot believe that the


service provided by National Express was so poor that an


extension could not have been considered to save a vast wastage of money. In comparison, Southeastern Trains was given a two year extension without question. Why does the DfT always


take the highest bid rather than one that is more constructive and actually workable. The past failures speak for themselves? Now I see the DfT is


going to create a monster of a franchise by combining Southern, First Capital Connect and the Thameslink services of Southeastern Trains. Bearing in mind that Transport for London wants to take over SE’s suburban services, that leaves very little of the SE franchise, so why not go the whole ‘mile’ and put it out of its misery and put that into the Mega Thameslink franchise. In fact, it could be called


‘Network SouthEast’ – now there is a brilliant idea! John Cherry. Chatham, Kent (Retired Atoc staff)


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