The disaster of rail privatisation
Why do we, rail users, put up with such a second-rate service?
The overblown price of a ticket to travel in such cramped, dirty conditions, often standing with hundreds of
other passengers, is outrageous. Travelling from my village to London by either of the routes available in
rush hour is horrendous in terms of cost and crowding on the train.
Additionally, parking at the station is far too expensive and often non-existent, which adds to the stress of
travelling by train.
I, like many others, gave up a worthwhile job in London simply because of the stress and cost of travelling
by rail.
Privatisation has given the passenger only more cramped conditions with an ever increasing cost of travel.
Where is the benefit for the passenger? Nothing has been achieved in terms of an improved travel
experience since Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation.
There have been promises of improvements to track and rolling stock which simply have not materialised or
not had any positive effect. Yet, still the rail executives receive huge salaries and bonuses. For what?
Turning up for work on time!
Does anybody really care about the passenger anymore. I don’t believe so.
Keith Poole Basingstoke
Vote them out
So the Conservative Party is now prepared to play Russian roulette with our economy, our union and the
future of our young people, while (entirely predictably) seeking to put the blame for their own actions onto
someone else. Please remember this at the next election when they will undoubtedly claim to be the party
most competent to govern!
Arthur Streatfield Bath
Johnson and May are not too different
On his determined road to No 10 Boris Johnson was canny enough to switch just before the referendum and
then to step aside from becoming prime minister in 2016, leaving it to the hapless Theresa May to try and
achieve the unachievable task that he and others had promised – ie leaving the EU with a better deal than
we had by remaining in, or, as others have put it, “having ones cake and eating it” or “walking on water”.
He was clever enough then to dodge the column but he has failed to learn from his predecessors’ obvious
errors – namely, don’t state red lines in advance and, more importantly, don’t exclude parliament from your
negotiations because at some stage you will need it.
It should be obvious to Johnson, who claims to be some sort of historian, that he is about to repeat history
by excluding parliament. Or has he yet to bring himself up to speed on recent history and the damage he
and his fellows inflicted on the hapless May when it was excluded?
All that has happened over the past few months is that we have exchanged one dog-in-the-manger PM for
another, both who believe that slogans can replace skill and ability and both who refuse to heed or
understand positions other than their own.
John Simpson Ross-on-Wye