Harriet Jean Evans takes a look at the social commentary of the past, and explains why she believes it just doesn't matter.
Our anonymous blogger reflects on her attempts to have a student Christmas... and how she came to the conclusion that home-made is always best.
Gillian Love urges you to vote 'No' to the motion to replace Women's Committee with a 'Gender Equality Committee'.
It’s that time of year again, and you’ve had to travel home for Christmas. You probably caught the train, and chances are you paid through the teeth for your ticket at a time when you probably could be doing with the money for buying other useful things. And the train was no doubt overcrowded, late, and not particularly speedy. If I sound bitter, it is because it took six and a half hours for me to get home to Cornwall - not far off the time it would take to drive.
Why do we put up with it?
Most other countries don’t. In 2007, Argentinean passengers rioted when a rush-hour train was delayed at a station in Buenos Aires. India has suffered similar riots, though perhaps not surprisingly, after the carnage dies down the trains run with unusual punctuality. Brits tend to be a bit more relaxed, understandably. But the solution isn’t violent outrage; it’s far simpler than that.
Fares are going up by 5.9%, while Network Rail’s profits have soared by 10% in the past year. In the face of the biggest spending squeeze in a generation fares are going up. It would be funny if only it weren’t true.
It’s in this light that someone has to suggest: why don’t we just bring back British Rail? The case for re-nationalising Britain’s railways is overwhelming. It’s not like it hasn’t been done – in 2008 New Zealand re-nationalised its railway system after realising that the private sector simply can’t be trusted to run a service that almost everyone needs to use. In fact, talking to people, many don’t even know that our train system is privately run – partly because in a way, it isn’t. The government has to pour huge subsidies into it just to keep it ticking over. Three times as much subsidy as when it was ‘British Rail’ – i.e. in public ownership. So we’re paying more – in fares and taxes – to prop up a rail system that clearly isn’t fit for purpose.
We’d be more accepting of the clumsy, privatised Network Rail if it was efficient – which after all is what the private sector is supposed to be good at. But our rail system is 30% less efficient than most of Europe. Most of whose railways are, you guessed it, in public hands. This all comes from the recent McNulty Report into the railway system which scarcely mentioned that unthinkable n-word – ‘nationalise’.
This all makes grim reading around Christmas, I know. But in an era of climate change it’s too important to ignore. The fact is, the higher the fares, the more likely people are to drive. Not great when oil is running out and the planet is heating up.
The public mood is heating up, too, but not quite enough. Still, the fear of suggesting the obvious and going the New Zealand way (i.e. re-nationalising) is immense. Yet, contrary to what might be assumed, it could be a way of sorting out our deficit. After all, demand for trains is ever-increasing – and British Rail raked in £204bn over 50 years of its existence. How about, instead of Virgin or First Great Western hauling in the dosh, the money is used to offset cuts in education, health and local councils? Or is that too radical an idea?
The first working day of the New Year, January 3rd, will see protests at major stations in London - not necessarily all calling for a return to British Rail, but nonetheless seeing the injustice of higher fares in the face of huge profits for the rail companies.
It would be easy to call it nostalgia, but students can’t be nostalgic about British Rail; it was sold off before our journeying time by John Major in the mid-90s. And let’s face it, a Conservative government is hardly going to renationalise the railways. For Cameron it would be anathema. But there’s reason to hope that in a decade’s time, when getting the train becomes unaffordable to most people despite rising subsidies from the public purse, someone might break the taboo and say something radical, nostalgic and blindingly obvious all at once: bring back British Rail.
Totally agree. I often like to believe that trains are the future of transport... but it is so hard when our railway system is so rubbish a lot of the time :(
Come January 1st, petrol prices will be rising by around 3% (4p to be precise, so it varies from station to station) while rail prices go up 6%. While, as a driver, this is good news to me, from an ecological standpoint it seems bizarre.
The cheapest fares currently available for a return ticket to York for me (on 7/1/12) are £28.50. In my car, it costs £31, and I get flexibility. This all seems a little crazy to me. But hey, cheap driving!
Agree with all points. It was sold under the belief that libertarian economics is the best policy, and over the last four years that illusion has been shattered over and over again. Don't leave important things, like the entire country's public transport (or control of the country's money) to the private sector unless there's an actual ability to have freedom of choice, such as with buses.
Even buses are a poor example IMO. Most towns and cities in the UK are run almost entirely by a single company, usually either First or Stagecoach, leaving them a license to set fees however they like (it's cheaper to park in the centre of York for three hours than to get a return bus there from a non-campus location). Look at the whole Pullman thing last year - Pullman are subsidised and so offer lower fairs, First goes right on ahead and matches them in price in the hope of ultimately driving them out of business. Of course, if they manage that they're free to put up their prices again!
The problem is that the train companies have a monopoly on their respective routes, meaning that they can charge what they like and the public have to dig deeper into their pockets because they have no other choice. The train companies are out to make a profit, so the easiest way to do that is to drive up the prices, if the railways were nationalised then they would be on a not for profit basis, so there would be no need to charge so much.
Having said that, East Coast has been nationalised and the service is just as crap and expensive as any other train service.
Although East Coast does provide free wi-fi, doesn't it? 
East Coast doesn't provide free wi-fi unless you're a first class customer.
We actually have some of the cheapest rail fares in Europe as well as the most expensive because there is such a disparity in the price of tickets. You simply need to be savvy.
But, the fares hit commuters most. Students don't really have anything to moan about compared to those travelling from home counties to London on a daily basis.
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