On the Wrong Line: How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain's Railways |  | Author: Christian Wolmar
Publisher: Aurum Press Ltd
Category: Book
Buy New: $197.23
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2482023
Media: Paperback
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1854109987
Dewey Decimal Number: 388
EAN: 9781854109989
ASIN: 1854109987
Publication Date: September 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Christian Wolmar's acclaimed Broken Rails charted the disastrous privatisation of the British railway system in the mid-1990s. Now, in an updated and expanded version of the book, Wolmar highlights the failure of New Labour to get to grips with the legacy it inherited. The railways now absorb more taxpayers' money than ever before, while performance has reached an all-time low. Wolmar suggests that the railways may soon be under threat from a massive round of cuts and closures - or that debts, already at USD10bn, will mount up with catastrophic effect. But he argues that there is a third option: a return to a rational railway in which the disparate pieces are reassembled into a functioning network.
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| Customer Reviews:
Good survey of the effects of privatisation September 22, 2007
William Podmore (London United Kingdom)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Christian Wolmar is a respected journalist and author on transport matters. In this brilliant book he shows how and why privatising the railways was a disastrous failure. As he notes, It is now recognised that the limitations of British Rail were primarily due to low levels of government funding and investment in fact it delivered the most efficient railway system in Europe in return for the lowest public subsidy. The privatisation nationalised investment and risks while privatising the profits.
The whole ghastly tale of mismanagement, greed and incompetence that caused the Hatfield disaster was a result of the crazy structure for the railways created by John Major and his ministers, aided and abetted by civil servants and, worse, railway managers who should have known better. Hatfield was the epitome of the failings created by railway privatisation. It was also privatisations epitaph, given that Hatfield turned Railtrack from a profitable company into a financial wreck that had to be bailed out by the government.
Former Tory Minister David Willetts admitted in 2003 that rail privatisation had been a big mistake, in particular that the separation of track from operations had been ideologically driven and wrong. A Swiss researcher, Carlo Pfund, concluded, Separation has no benefits. The implementation of the separation philosophy of the EU is a fundamental error.
In opposition, Labour promised a publicly accountable, publicly owned railway. In power, Labour reneged. Annual subsidies to the train operators have risen, to £2 billion in 2003-4, though the government had said they would fall to £800 million by 2002-3.
Labour stopped the Strategic Rail Authority from publicising South East Trains success. As The Times reported, The SRA is under pressure from the Government not to publicise its success in operating the franchise. Ministers fear that they would face demands to renationalise all rail companies if it became widely known that SET was performing well in the public sector.
Wolmar shows how Labour by embracing capitalism made a bad situation worse, as with city academies, PFI/PPP in the NHS, and wars galore. He concludes, By focusing in detail on a particular case history, this book reveals much about the failure of our political system in preventing such disasters. Hopefully, it will help people stop the bastards next time.
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