Nationalised railways flex their muscles...

This from Rose Hill...

In the very week that the European Commission publishes its Recast of the First Railway Package, is it any co-incidence that ATOC publishes its proposals to re-monopolise the UK rail sector?

Around a third of UK franchises are now owned, or partly owned by European state owned railway companies, who make no secret of their dislike of liberalisation.

Imagine the joy if the UK turned its back on it after all and went back to those heady days when we all worked together in a single company in a low cost, cheap and cheerful, kind of way.

Except of course there would have to be more regional companies now – a German one, a French one, a Dutch one and so on.

Of course that would be ok, because they’re all used to working together.

The French and German governments in fact met recently to discuss their opposition to the Recast and by sheer chance, SNCF have now discovered that it will be far too expensive to operate passenger trains in Germany after all. Just fancy that!

Mind you, at least the state owned passenger operators have extensive experience of managing track and signalling, unlike the bus companies who run the other two thirds of the franchises…

When choice and competition doesn't matter

Telegrammed by Bulldog Drummond...
Nick Hassell in his Times Tempus column today does quite a good job analysing Stagecoach's recent (fairly creditable) performance.

But he ends up talking, as most analysts do, of upcoming sector consolidation.

Have any of these deep thinking hacks paused for a moment to think what the Competition Commission response will be?

The Government contracted passenger transport industry is already reduced to a handful of serious players.

Any fewer and CoCo will, rightly, see huge conflicts of interest.

What buses and railways want are more varied and interesting players rather than the present narrow field dominated by European nationalised railways and Scottish bus bandits.

If the devil could cast his net...

Interesting.

This from ShareCast...

Bus and train group National Express is to sell its London bus business, Travel London, to a subsidiary of NS Dutch Railways.

Of course NatEx and NedRail make good bedfellows.

What with both rumoured to be out of the running for the South Central franchise.

First for really peeing passengers off

What bit of the current climate don't train operators get?

There is a recession on.

Everyone is feeling the squeeze.

So what in God's name made Worst Group think they could get away with this increase to First Class weekend upgrades, revealed in The Times...

On Sunday the cost of a one-way upgrade increased from £10 to £25 for journeys between stations in Cornwall and South Wales to London. On many other routes the price doubled to £20.

The public furore over troughing MPs with their tax payer funded clean moats, third homes and duck islands should have given them a clue.

The fact that Iain Coucher had the wit and gumption to sense the public mood and abandon a sizeable part of his annual bonus, should have shown them the way.

But no - in bus bandit land the mantra is 'screw the passenger for all we can get'.

Be of no doubt there is mounting fury over the avaraciousness of the 'service' sector.

The passengers (think voters, possibly as soon as October) will not put up with this cynical milking of their hard earned cash for long.

They will kick back and the railway will suffer, not that our short term TOC owner groups could care. After all they are merely "thinly capitalised equity profiteers of the worst kind".

No matter.

So what did Worst Group have to say for itself?

“We’ve changed the way Weekend First works to reflect the distance travelled rather than one, catch-all fare, which saw customers travelling from, for example, London to Reading paying the same price as someone going from London to Penzance."

So based on the fact that First have milked local passengers at the same rate as long-distance travellers over many years, does this mean that Weekend First prices between Reading and London have actually decreased.

Errr... no.

They of course remain the same.

Meanwhile those travelling to London from two of the most economically disadvantaged parts of our nation - Cornwall and South Wales - will be hit by the full 150% increase.

This complete disconnection between our industry and the world it is there to serve makes you weep.

TOCs shaft Andrew's big idea

Despite depressing headlines about greedy TOCs increasing fares by 11% it's good to know that the All Line Rail Rover still offers good value for money.

Indeed, on his recent rail odyssey Lord Adonis felt moved to write:

"As for cost, I am expecting to do the whole trip, standard class, for £375... using a seven-day 'all-line rail rover'. This is a ticket no one seems to have heard of, perhaps because it is so poorly advertised."

Poorly advertised it may have been, but after all the media coverage surrounding Adonis' trip the All Line Rail Rover is better known now than ever.

So what better time for ATOC to increase the Rovers price by a massive 14.5% !

From 17th May the 7 day version of the All Line Rover will increase from £375 to an eye-watering £430.00!


And you can forget taking Adonis up on his idea of buying one so the kids can "get to know their own country". The childrens version goes up by whopping £39, from £245 to £284!

What a splendid way to take the wind straight out of the Transport Minister's sails!

Let the Eye be first to congratulate ATOC's new team for mastering their brief so quickly.