We should learn from the swiss and subsidise our railways

By AnnaJoy David

Why were none of us surprised when we heard recently that another bit of track had broken off this ramshackle rail network system of ours? Government consultations and announcements come and go – the latest from Lord Adonis – but the basic problems remain. Britain’s tired rail network is in need of a mojo, and that mojo is nationalisation. It’s so evident to some of us that I don’t understand why my government doesn’t get it, unless ministers are still scared of the N-word and what David Cameron’s Tories might do with it.

So let’s be brave and start from the right premise: we should view public transport as a public resource like water, oil and gas. It gets us moving and we want people off the roads and out of cars. The reasons are obvious, not least helping the planet breathe more easily and giving it a bit of a break. People today move around more and in much more dynamic ways. Catching a flight somewhere for a weekend break, taking the eurostar to Paris for the day to shop; what was inconceivable just 10 years ago is now the norm.

Public transport is a major player in that process. Trains need to be a central part of a National and European transport plan, and yet on this side of the Channel we are like a limp lettuce. Some of my opponents argue that more trains run on time, service is better and there are more trains on the line. That’s true, insofar as it goes.

But when we study the balance sheet, we see that it’s outweighed with negatives in return: the price we are having to pay for even short journeys simply isn’t matched by the frequently shoddy service we get in return. From the consumers’ point of view, we feel shafted financially by the ‘service’ we receive – closed buffet cars, out-of-service toilets, late running – and with good reason.

The cost of rail travel is astronomical, but the service offered by many providers (those that are still in business, that it) is hardly more than average. Routes are chopped up to suit the providers and the consumer is forced to chop and change trains (and tickets) between lines. Tickets and prices vary and cannot sometimes be transferred.

This public train service is not really serving the public, so what is it there to do and who is it serving?

What ministers should do is visit Switzerland and use their rail network. It’s a capitalist country which runs a subsided national rail network, and it does it because it values trains as a national resource. It encourages its citizens to use them to get around, and it’s both cheap and it’s efficient. People use it to get to work, visit friends and family and interact in Switzerland’s civil society (remember families do not always live close by as we did even 20 years ago). The rail network also moves people around to help the economy, from people to freight to industry. People work from home more and the nature of work is changing thanks to the digital age.

In the 21st century our transport needs demand a public rail network that is up to the challenges of the changing face of work and the economy, not just here at home but abroad.

For me, the slow derailing of our dysfunctional “family” network rail system is an opportunity to do the right thing by the public and the trains. Let’s take the rail network back from failing operators, give it to the public and encourage them to use it. Let’s subsidize it and make the rail network better, larger, more centrally managed but more locally based.