|
Engineering works scheduled – will last decades |
|
|
|
|
Written by The Ansa Fransa
|
|
Friday, 28 November 2008 |
The ‘just... must... make a profit...' culture overriding the social impacts of such cuts has been here for decades - just take the railways and the cuts made by Dr Beeching in the 60s.
The complete love affair with the roads and under-investment in railways, as evidenced as in Hislop's documentary on regular BBC2/BBC4 repeat at the moment, was pretty depressing stuff, all short termism to save money. Now it's the Royal Mail and other key public service providers.
Beeching is an example, as is the current Post Office predicament, of where some reform of a public service is needed but maniac cuts and distorting economies are imposed which disfigure and ruin the service in question. Tory Transport Minister Ernest Marples and his tarmac business represented no conflict of interest whatsoever, of course. He appointed Beeching and was Transport Minister for the full five years of Macmillan's last government - why wouldn't a road builder do that?
The amazing conflict of interest in this historical example was hilarious. Anyone who worked the lines during this period knows it pretty clear that there was never enough money spent and the money that was spent was on all the wrong things, Beeching should have paid more attention to that. Plus, the majority of the decisions made were not based on long-term strategy. That's why it was quicker to get to Sheffield from London in the 50s than it is today, and why you can be sure that the oedIpod soft furnishings and soft entertainment of the Virgin northwest service will never compensate for a journey that frequently diverts pasts the work to stop at every major city on the way down.
The closest to Beeching and his ilk now are those fabulous Powerpoint consultants that without any prior experience of running a railway and not wanting to listen to those persons involved in running it put their management methods to the test.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 28 November 2008 )
|
