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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jul/14/southern-rail-fiasco-john-lewis-nationalisation
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| How can the Southern rail fiasco be solved? Look to John Lewis | How can the Southern rail fiasco be solved? Look to John Lewis |
| (about 18 hours later) | |
| Hours before the deadline set by the courts in the judicial review case brought by the Association of British Commuters, transport secretary Chris Grayling has made his decision. Govia Thameslink Railway is to be fined £13.4m for failing to keep to a contract worth £8.9bn over seven years, to run Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express. | Hours before the deadline set by the courts in the judicial review case brought by the Association of British Commuters, transport secretary Chris Grayling has made his decision. Govia Thameslink Railway is to be fined £13.4m for failing to keep to a contract worth £8.9bn over seven years, to run Southern, Thameslink and Gatwick Express. |
| This bizarre slap on the wrist raises an important question: not just what should happen when a public service contract fails, but who will protect service users from failing contracts, especially if the government always sides with the contractors against the users. But don’t let us pretend that this is just about badly run railways. It is also about bad governance. | This bizarre slap on the wrist raises an important question: not just what should happen when a public service contract fails, but who will protect service users from failing contracts, especially if the government always sides with the contractors against the users. But don’t let us pretend that this is just about badly run railways. It is also about bad governance. |
| Part of the problem is a desperate Department of Transport, increasingly dependent on the handful of companies that still want to run a rail franchise. And this one is also peculiar because Govia takes only 3% of ticket revenue, giving the rest to Whitehall. It earns almost nothing from investing or improving services – the original idea behind privatisation. | Part of the problem is a desperate Department of Transport, increasingly dependent on the handful of companies that still want to run a rail franchise. And this one is also peculiar because Govia takes only 3% of ticket revenue, giving the rest to Whitehall. It earns almost nothing from investing or improving services – the original idea behind privatisation. |
| Part is also the dysfunctional system that divided management of the trains from control of the track, which the Major government believed was specified by the European commission. And part is also the breakdown in trust, not just between unions and management, but between passengers and managers. | Part is also the dysfunctional system that divided management of the trains from control of the track, which the Major government believed was specified by the European commission. And part is also the breakdown in trust, not just between unions and management, but between passengers and managers. |
| This is arguably an inevitable result of the way the company behaves, and of the pretence by Grayling that the only problem has been union action – a symptom, if nothing else, of the obsession that the Department of Transport and the rail unions have with each other. | This is arguably an inevitable result of the way the company behaves, and of the pretence by Grayling that the only problem has been union action – a symptom, if nothing else, of the obsession that the Department of Transport and the rail unions have with each other. |
| When the long-awaited report on Southern by railway insider Chris Gibb was finally published by Grayling’s civil servants, it included a paragraph also blaming the unions for everything. This was much quoted by ministers but was contradicted by a telltale graph in the same report that showed that Southern’s decline had begun shortly after GTR took over, and long before industrial action. | When the long-awaited report on Southern by railway insider Chris Gibb was finally published by Grayling’s civil servants, it included a paragraph also blaming the unions for everything. This was much quoted by ministers but was contradicted by a telltale graph in the same report that showed that Southern’s decline had begun shortly after GTR took over, and long before industrial action. |
| The real question is whether the company has any duties to passengers, particularly disabled ones, who have been left with an even more unreliable service by the simultaneous removal of guards and platform staff. | The real question is whether the company has any duties to passengers, particularly disabled ones, who have been left with an even more unreliable service by the simultaneous removal of guards and platform staff. |
| Either way, Southern has gone in three years from a reliable service with onboard refreshment trolleys, guards to help disabled passengers and platform staff to one with none of these. Yes, they have shiny new Thameslink trains, but they feel as if they have been designed to be hosed down easily. | Either way, Southern has gone in three years from a reliable service with onboard refreshment trolleys, guards to help disabled passengers and platform staff to one with none of these. Yes, they have shiny new Thameslink trains, but they feel as if they have been designed to be hosed down easily. |
| Govia also inherited fewer drivers than it needed and, for whatever reason, has not replaced them. Consequently, it has few standby drivers and requires others to come in on days off to fill gaps. So when Aslef banned overtime last month, partly to draw attention to the gap, it had to cancel a quarter of all services. | Govia also inherited fewer drivers than it needed and, for whatever reason, has not replaced them. Consequently, it has few standby drivers and requires others to come in on days off to fill gaps. So when Aslef banned overtime last month, partly to draw attention to the gap, it had to cancel a quarter of all services. |
| But after this announcement, when Grayling grudgingly accepted that passengers had been “let down” – and there were divorces and redundancies because of the unreliable services last year – this trust breakdown underpins everything else, leaving passengers feeling battered and manipulated, and full of complex questions. | But after this announcement, when Grayling grudgingly accepted that passengers had been “let down” – and there were divorces and redundancies because of the unreliable services last year – this trust breakdown underpins everything else, leaving passengers feeling battered and manipulated, and full of complex questions. |
| For example, train companies are charged by Network Rail using a formula depending on the number of carriages and the time of day. Is the reason so many trains are now short and packed to suffocation because Govia’s shadowy owner Go Ahead is desperately trying to claw back losses on the disastrous franchise? And why do cancelled services no longer appear on departure boards? | For example, train companies are charged by Network Rail using a formula depending on the number of carriages and the time of day. Is the reason so many trains are now short and packed to suffocation because Govia’s shadowy owner Go Ahead is desperately trying to claw back losses on the disastrous franchise? And why do cancelled services no longer appear on departure boards? |
| It is hard not to suspect the worst, given the series of manipulative half-truths around Southern that waft from Whitehall, desperately trying to maintain the pretence that this is just an ordinary industrial dispute. | It is hard not to suspect the worst, given the series of manipulative half-truths around Southern that waft from Whitehall, desperately trying to maintain the pretence that this is just an ordinary industrial dispute. |
| The government should remove the franchise – of course it should. But part of the problem is that Whitehall is already taking all the decisions on Southern. It isn’t clear why nationalisation would be an improvement. There is certainly no point in fining the contractor if it then claws the money back from passengers, directly or indirectly. | The government should remove the franchise – of course it should. But part of the problem is that Whitehall is already taking all the decisions on Southern. It isn’t clear why nationalisation would be an improvement. There is certainly no point in fining the contractor if it then claws the money back from passengers, directly or indirectly. |
| There is only one practical long-term answer. Replace Govia with a new co-operative franchise, able to balance the needs of staff and passengers because they are the operators. We have mutual privatisation in the form of Welsh Water. It may now be time for a John Lewis-style railway. | There is only one practical long-term answer. Replace Govia with a new co-operative franchise, able to balance the needs of staff and passengers because they are the operators. We have mutual privatisation in the form of Welsh Water. It may now be time for a John Lewis-style railway. |
| Southern | Southern |
| Opinion | Opinion |
| Rail transport | Rail transport |
| Rail industry | Rail industry |
| Transport | Transport |
| Chris Grayling | Chris Grayling |
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