Anyone have any sense of their long-term plan?
To save money.
Quote from elsewhere:
"Simply look at the buses parked outside the stations as the 158s go to store at Eastleigh. I also refer you to Mr. Armitt's public statement made to the Guardian just before Christmas, made at the same time as we were being told to plan in buses on certain routes. This was also mentioned by the current DfT head of the Rail Department.
The bus replacement started last Thursday. The GW Franchise is seen as the testbed for all the others. It also suits the Governments aim in curbing the leasing companies if they can force their assets into periods of non-earning storage.
Some 60 lines across the UK were seen as prime candidates for trains being replaced by buses. These 60 routes include Exmouth-Barnstaple via Exeter, The Looe Branch, Gunnislake Branch, Newquay Branch and even the St. Ives Branch (This last one even in Winter is well loaded). It is simple economics according to the Whitehall crowd. Even with packed trains every day, buses and even taxis are cheaper in terms of pounds spent. No train leases to pay, no track to maintain (and repair after flooding), less staff to employ, less safety regulation to enforce, and no risk to Labour seats, as most of the areas affected have no Labour MPs.
Either someone else pays or it shuts.
It is then cheaper to subsidise buses for a year or two, until ridership on those becomes so low, that they too can be withdrawn on the grounds of no demand."
So there you have it. Of course it doesn't have to be like this. In British Rail days the annual rail subsidy was approximately £1 billion but since privatisation this has soared to somewhere in the region of £5 billion. Hardly surprising really when you split one organisation (BR) into 100 pieces. In a nutshell the current organisation of the railways is expensive to run and always will be. What the politicians need to be doing is coming up with an alternative organisation that costs less money to run. If they could do that then all the threatened lines could probably stay open. Instead they've decided to try close some lines and leave the expensive-to-run organisation in place. Welcome to Britain.
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