Trains and Railways

Despite huge public and private investment, Britain's railways are failing to deliver. The aftermath of the Hatfield disaster hasn't helped, but the problems are deep-rooted.

Did you know? Fewer trains arrive on time now than they did 4 years ago. (Strategic Rail Authority)

Privatisation split the UK railway system into over 100 companies. The result has been chaos and inefficiency.

The Tube

As far as London is concerned, at least the tube system in under the overall control of one organisation, Transport for London (TfL). But the much-needed modernisation is being carried out by means of a highly-critised Private Public Partnership (PPI) - a variant of Private Finance Initiative (PFI). This has been estimated to cost the taxpayer £2 billion more than doing the work by a traditional public contract. Money that ought to be spent on improving our railways, not going into the pockets of 'fatcats'.

Various ticket tariffs and confusing information means that even simple tasks like finding out how much your journey will cost and when your train will depart can be difficult. But responsibility for London's railways will be shortly be given to the Mayor, so this should improve integration.

The Government is investing a lot in railways - it plans to spend £60 billion on Britain's railways over the next 10 years. But much of this will be spent on mega-scale projects rather than on local and commuter journeys where it would have the biggest impact on car traffic. Crossrail is arguably such a project. Although it will help commuting, it is a hugely expensive and will tend to starve more local rail projects of funding.

Links

Crossrail
Back to transport introduction

Jan 05