Couns Whitbourn and Taylor support a petition against closure of the ticket office at Spalding Railway Station.
One or two relevant points:
When the railways were privatised, responsibilities became fragmented, and lack of co-ordination was responsible for disjointed running, cancelled services, etc. Monetary arrangements meant that there was no great incentive for companies to improve service and attract new business. (One of the best companies in those last respects, is now LNER, after being taken back into public hands some time ago.)
A review by Keith Williams, delivered nearly three years ago and adopted by Grant Shapps, proposed a new public body – Great British Railways (GBR) – to radically improve organisation and performance.
Good idea, but a lot of detail needs sorting out and legislation is required to establish and authorise appropriate authorities, to define policy, and to make funding arrangements clear.
It’s a big job, but the government has virtually sat on its hands, so nothing much has happened. And glaringly absent is an overall national policy for the railways, critical for the direction of those doing the job.
Another consideration is cost to the taxpayer.
Railways, have long been subsidised to the tune of billions each year. Given a future of carbon-free transport, I think it’s right to subsidise them. But Tory policies stress the will to have low taxes.
Taxes are higher just now, but Britain has long been one of the lowest taxed countries in Europe. If low taxes dictate it, low expenditure on railways will mean that things like closing ticket offices will be inevitable.
So, two questions for “our excellent MP” (quote): First, what has he been doing to get the government off its backside in respect of the Great British Railways proposal; and second, how far does he think the taxpayer should go in subsidising the railways to, amongst other things, make possible the keeping open of ticket offices?
John Tippler
Spalding
