Fare-ly reflecting history

A number of newly local Conservatives have a habit of ignoring railway history when they blame the former Labour Government for fare hikes. This is either because of a lack of intellectual capability to grasp the issue, or indeed a policy of obfiscation of responsibility.

It is worth looking at the underlying causes of fare increases over the last couple of years and also why the current fare hikes are not a continuation of Labour Policy at all, but instead reflective of a Conservative ideology which is trying to remove the tax-payer and tax the rail-user. An inherently Conservative notion of putting the pain on the individual user whilst undermining collectivism and communitarianism on the railways.

An ideology which destoyed the railways before, is once again being used to undermine them again.

The privatisation of British Rail was set in motion when the Conservative government enacted, on 19 January 1993, the British Coal and British Rail (Transfer Proposals) Act 1993. This enabled the relevant Secretary of State to issue directions, as to the disposal of assets, to the relevant Board. This was necessary since (in the case of the British Railways Board) they had to act, at all times, within the rules established by various Transport and Railways Acts – none of which would have allowed the Board to 'sell-off' any of its assets.

The subsequent direction from the Conservative Party Secretary of State forced the creation of Railtrack PLC. This then paved the way, later that year for the Railways Act 1993 introduced by John Major's Conservative government. The operations of the British Railways Board (BRB) were broken up and sold off.

This process was very controversial at the time, and the Labour opposition announced its intention to re-nationalise the railways, although this was not implemented by the subsequent Labour government due to huge cost barriers placed into the contracts by the Conservative Government

The Tories have admited liability for this monumental failure so it is with tongue-in-cheek that they blamed Labour for fare increases whose seed was sown by their own destructive lack of judgement.

Chris Grayling, admitted that the 1996 split of the rail industry into track and train components was a mistake which had increased costs:

"We think, with hindsight, that the complete separation of track and train into separate businesses at the time of privatisation was not right for our railways. We think that the separation has helped push up the cost of running the railways - and hence fares - and is now slowing decisions about capacity improvements. Too many people and organisations are now involved in getting things done - so nothing happens. As a result, the industry lacks clarity about who is in charge and accountable for decisions."

Labour however did not do everything right. Despite the fact that Tony Blair's "New Labour" Government, in principal, wanted to ‘re-nationalise’ the railways (and little wonder, in view of the ‘unhealthy’ state of the privatised industry they had inherited), this policy had to discarded out on the grounds of its estimated £22 billion price-tag.

The SRA failed to have any lasting impact on the rail network due to the fact the Conservative privatisation was so vast in scale and scope it left a totally inept system of management.

The Hatfield Crash left Labour with very few options, but a decision was made to nationalise the railway infrastructure and spend billions on improving railway safety Over the following years the infrastructure did improve and so did train punctuality. Under Labour, 1.32 billion passenger journeys were made on the national rail network in the calendar year 2010 - a rise of 6.9% compared to 2009 and 37% more than in 2000. This total approaching a peace-time record, with such figures not having been witnessed since the early 1920's

The problem of ticket pricing however became unresolvable as it become increasingly clear that the Tory privatisation was not actually profitable for private companies at all; the entire rationale for the privatisation was utterly flawed, and ever since the government has effectively had to subsidise billions to unprofitable private train companies. The idea behind the privatisation was to take the politics out of the railways; what a monumental Tory failure that has been.

The story of SouthEastern trains is complex but to cut story short the previous Conservative Government awarded the Southern Central / South Eastern contracts to Connex which was originally supposed to run until 2011. The company made some serious strategic and financial mistakes, to such an extent that in June 2003 the Strategic Rail Authority decided to cut the South Eastern franchise short at the end of 2003, citing poor financial management and "a serious loss of confidence... in the ability of the company to run the business in its widest sense".

Connex had run a business model of lower fares, lower investment, higher numbers. Years of underinvestment and poor services resulted.

The government nationalised the Connex franchise in 2003 but was left with a mess. Not only were South Eastern railways in a parlous state but the carriages and infrastructure were simply not fit for purpose either. The polls at the time indicated that railusers would be happy to invest in better trains and railways and a decision was made by government to dramatically increase the government Rail Grant for the newly nationalised franchise.

The government however made the position clear that an increase in tax-payer subsidy must be matched by fare increases of RPI + 3%. This was unique on the railways at the time because of the poor state Connex had left our railways and the requirement for investment.

The RPI + 3% increases were believed to be manageable with inflation at historic lows but a timelimit was set for 2011/12. The fare increases were used to pay for new train carriages, better stations and the development of the HS1 network. Investment was prioritised and from 2003-2008 we did see huge improvements in punctuality, rising train numbers and a reduction of major crashes (across the entire UK network).

When the crash happened in 2008, the Conservatives in the South East sensed an opportunity to appeal to marginal voters by opposing fare increases of +3% RPI stating they were not only unfair when compared with other areas but also harming business. Tory PPCs, Council candidates and sympathisers used the bully-pulpits of elected Council offices to undermine SouthEastern trains for political gain whilst ignoring the causes of the problem and the logic for the fare rises in the first place.

It succeeded as public pressure focused relentlessly on the company and its performance. From a purely partisan position this was a very sensible campaign strategy. The problem is it utterly ignored, or actually conveniently ignored the entire history of the problem which is primarily Conservative mismanagement. It also deliberately manufactured and harvested public discontent for a political outcome; the election of Conservative Councillors and MPs.

It worked. On the back of supporting transport campaigns across the South East; cutting fares, cutting Dartford Toll and supporting Fuel Duty Stabilisers; the public put their trust in Conservatives.

But what has happened since is a dereliction of duty.

Once in office the Tories in 2010 they cut the Rail Grant investment into the railways as part of the DfT budget settlement, and not only retained the 3% RPI increases but extended it across the entire UK rail network. The fare payer thus paid more (across the UK) but the money does not go to improved services but to mitigate the cut in grant; the argument behind fare increases under the Tories is thus entirely different.

The Tories also removed 'flex' so allowing franchises to increase costs in high volume areas to mitigate increases in low volume areas. The Labour Party time-limit on 3% RPI was extended from 2012 to 2015 with fare increases laid down over the entire Parliament in stone, ignoring any economic factors such as a lack of growth or economic recovery.

We are now in a situation where growth and the economy has not recovered due to George Osborne cutting too far and too fast. Inflation is rampant and the Tories have locked themselves into increasing fares which is why we are now paying the price and why the increases ignore all logic.

Labour did make some mistakes; it should have acted more quickly after taking office in 1997, though I do believe Blair wanted to limit the impact on the public purse of having to re-nationalise at a time when we were trying to balance the books from the 1991-93 recession. Labour should have kept an eye on Connex and perhaps cancelled the franchise earlier; it also should not have allowed the franchise to return to the private sector. It could also have been more aware of the financial constraints of commuters from 2008-2010 in terms of the recession and could have made moves to ameliorate these impacts.

Make no mistake however, when compared with the actual policy outcomes of Tory decision-making the above would have been tinkering around the edges of the problem. Had Connex lost its contract in 1999 Labour would still have inherited a mess. Fare reductions in 2008 would have impacted the ability to roll-out HS1. These are small issues when compared with the botched privatisation of not only the railways infrastructure but also to Connex as a provider in the first place.

For the Tories to claim the railways and fares are a mess because of Labour is a complete lie. It is re-writing of history to fit a right wing narrative which is utter rubbish

These fare increases are also utterly wrong because they are not about investment at all; which is what the original 3% RPI fares were for. They are also prohibitively high given inflation at the moment is rampant. The Conservatives have got it wrong (again) on trains and sadly we will all suffer from their utter arrogance once again.

All governments accept blame but this mess of the railways is a Conservative creation and the current fares fiasco is also a direct result of Tory ideology.

They like to play with the railways but they dont have a clue about how to run them.