Let railways be railways

The railways were not built for commuters.

No matter what their job is, the moment an otherwise sane businessperson is faced with their train to and from work they often turn into something akin to a socialist in a champagne shortage.

Commuter trains are not economical. Indeed, were it not for the fact that London would fail without them, there would be no reason whatsoever to run them. For most of the day the trains sit empty in sidings. Despite existing for more than 100 years the commuter has yet to realise that the railways do not function for them. They are the froth, not the American coffee.

Railways were built for freight. They function best for freight, since they carry much larger loads than their rivals and they can travel faster. The part of the railways with the most modern stock is freight, vast numbers of new locomotives have been shipped across the Atlantic in the past decade to cope with the demand.

This is partly due to the fact that the freight sector of the railways functions much better than the passenger. There are not the franchises, government schemes and endless meddling restrictions that the passenger companies face. They can just get on with the job. Consider that the Royal train is organised by a freight company, not a passenger one, because the Royal train needs to work flexibly.

Thanks to the micromanagement of Whitehall since privatisation there is no longer the ability for the railways to respond to trade. The rolling stock is tired and has needed replacement for years. You can still find BR shunters, built based on a design from the 1930s, and it is only three years since the last 1950s slam door commuter trains were retired.

Years of working have taken their toll on the railways. Had there been the investment needed they’d be in a great state. Despite being focussed too much on unprofitable services, the railways can just about muddle along, if they were left alone, they might even be able to thrive again.

It is worth pointing out that one sector of the railways has grown fantastically in the last 60 years. The preserved sector. They have lessons for the mainline railways, since the best are actually able to turn a profit.

They remember to give passengers a service, rather than simply shipping a cargo of people, they make a fuss of passengers, with well-kept coaches, honest apologies if things go wrong, and staff who are happy and motivated. They’re the only railways thriving without freight.
Why? They make do. Yes, old rolling stock is going to be tired. But if it is given a decent overhaul before it’s falling apart, cleaned regularly and thoroughly when in service and works, passengers won’t know it’s ancient. Yes, it may be a wooden 1880s third class carriage. But it’s clean, with a working light, and the window opens and the strap is new. Most people will be content with the equivalent for modern trains.

There are 536 miles of preserved railway in this country, comparable to any mainline. They carry over 7 million passengers a year, comparable to many ordinary railways. Despite not having the delights of Network Rail and the franchises, they work. It may well be time that the railway companies stand up for themselves, tell the Civil Service to let go of the railways and learn how to do it for themselves.

Would fares still go up then? Not necessarily. They might, prepare yourselves, go down.

Why? If the railways had the ability to work for themselves, they might try and fill the trains between the commuter hours, instead of trying to fund them on just the commuters. Which might just benefit everybody.

Russia is showing our ugly side

There’s something deeply unsettling about the fact that the West is only getting upset with Russia now that we want something.

Whether it’s America trying desperately to get Edward Snowden or the International Olympic Committee (which has a bad track record with evil) asking for “clarification”, no one is coming off well in this.

Russia is not a nice place to spend a long time, whether you’re gay, straight or just anybody but Putin or his best friends. Democracy has not taken root, but corruption and abuse have. There are hideous wars in some parts of the country like Chechnya. It is in truth, still a country the Tsars would recognise.

Yet for years, they’ve paid up what we want. Oil and investment in the west has bought the silence of the international community. Now though, since we have to send someone other than businessmen there, suddenly everybody cares.

The LGBTQ community is generally fairly protective, that there’s been outrage over the appalling new anti-gay law in Russia isn’t surprising.

Yet it struggled to gain much impact beyond a vodka boycott until somebody realised that the West was about to ship a load of its better known people there to play sport. Suddenly the media jumped on it, here was something to spice up the sport coverage. Now of course the celebrities have got involved.

Notice the way round that is. Terrible thing happens, people are suffering. Only when it affects the people in the “nice” part of the world does it suddenly matter.

Where were the boycotts and threats to pull the Winter Olympics when the Russians arrested political dissidents or kept the Syrian government supplied with arms?

The international community used to have a sense of policing the world. Whether it was destroying the slave trade or opening up monopolies to free trade, there was a real sense of right and wrong. And making sure that right won.

Granted, this did fail on occasions, especially in the 1930s. By the 1960s the new rule had begun. If you called yourself a democracy, or even just weren’t allied with Communism, it was all good. Since then the idea of “the world’s policeman” has been reduced to “the world’s guarantor of oil.”

If Russia didn’t have oil or the Olympics, the odds are nobody would even be paying attention. LGBTQ rights are loathed across a vast swathe of the earth, yet Russia gets all the attention.

Ultimately, the question is, are we going to really do anything? Will we actually stand up and say that human rights matter more to us than a quiet life? Or will we wait a few days, let the fuss die down and settle for maybe a new rule than anyone who is LGBTQ is automatically counted as a refugee if they’re from a country that is ok with killing them?

To be honest, even the latter is hopeful.