Congratulations to ScotRail, if only for avoiding the temptation to crow about the punctuality and reliability of its train services in the first year of privatisation. Those who gloat and get carried away with themselves in such circumstances risk the fate that befalls hostages to fortune. ScotRail wisely eschewed self-praise, although it has much to be proud of according to the passenger rail franchising watchdog Ofrap: top of the table for the 25 train operating companies in Britain for punctuality and one of only two firms which improved the reliability of its services by more than 1% over the previous year. As ScotRail's managing director pointed out, statistics do not mean a jot if you are waiting for a late train, stuck on one that has broken down, or left stranded by the cancellation of a scheduled service.
Sadly, too many passengers continue to be inconvenienced and infuriated by train operators who are not delivering the standard of service promised by a privatisation which was all too clearly driven by Conservative free-market dogma and not any notion of customer satisfaction. It fell to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to make the easy political point that passengers were still not getting the best deal from rail privatisation, particularly as their tax pounds were helping to subsidise the train operators to the tune of #1800m. The operators are all too aware that the level of subsidy is falling year by year, none more so than Richard Branson's Virgin group, whose west coast Scottish services turned in figures for punctuality which were actually worse than the previous year's. Even allowing for such mitigating factors as Railtrack restricting train speeds so that line repairs could be
carried out, a near-10% drop in punctuality rates is inexcusable. Rail chiefs have challenged all train companies dramatically to improve their services, a challenge which is all the more pressing for Mr Branson as he contemplates a rapidly-changing financial regime.
Virgin services on the main west coast line have a justifiably poor reputation which will be further tarnished by Ofrap's latest tables of performance. Mr Branson is a supreme self-publicist and his skills on behalf of his west coast services were slickly apparent when he and Railtrack announced plans for a huge investment in rolling stock and track modernisation which, they confidently predicted, would significantly reduce journey times between Glasgow, North-west England, and London, making them genuinely competitive with the airlines and, therefore, attractive to many more passengers. But in the great railway scheme of things, salvaging image is the sub-text. Making big bucks from the services is the imperative. As the subsidy tails off, Mr Branson will have to start paying an annual fee for the franchise, rising to #220m in 2012, when it will expire. It is estimated that, to pay these
bills (and be in a position to mount a credible bid for the next franchise) he will have to double the number of passengers on his trains. That is a huge challenge. First your trains have to run on time.
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