RAIL FRANCHISE FARCE

U-turn if you want too? 

Having been away for the best part of a week – it is easy to lose track of things – so I missed out on one of those decisive Cameron U-turn moments – when the rail franchise bids got derailed. This is one of those moments when political comedy drama and actual politics / governance almost seamlessly blend into one. The Omnishambles that the English West Coast Main Line bid seems to have become suggests to me that it’s time to rethink of the whole privatised rail industry structure. This Whitehall shambles brings into question the competence of a private franchise being responsible for the electrification of the Great Western line from Swansea to London. The whole process has been discredited, we would be better off with a publicly owned rail industry, something that would widely supported by the electorate and would be far better able to meet commuter and economic needs than private firms.