Christian Wolmar's October newsletter

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Christian Wolmar

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Oct 11, 2012, 11:01:09 AM10/11/12

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Dear subscriber

A very rushed newsletter – this has been the busiest few weeks of my life, with a trip to America, vast lots of articles to write, preparing my trip on the Transsiberian…and then the West Coast thing blew up in the government’s face. It was like a train crash without victims, except, of course, us poor taxpayers.

It allowed me to write a piece in The Times (here) asking the Wolmar question, ‘What is franchising for?’, a question that the government should have to answer but probably will not. Chatting to a senior source in the Coalition the other day, made me realise just how stuck they are all on the notion that it is the franchising system that has delivered the increased passenger numbers of the past few years. Of course, it hasn’t as illustrated, for example, by similar growth rates on non franchises parts of the rail network such as the London Underground.

And when one suggests concessions – taking the revenue risk out of the equation – they say, ‘there will be no incentive to grow the business.’ But concessions, or contracting out, is used widely across government in industries – prison vans for example – where growth is not an issue. Surely providing a good service is the key and winning the next contract should be enough incentive to ensure that happens, as well, of course, as the old fashioned notion of simply doing a job properly without need for bonuses or other rewards.

Just to add to the fun, there was the party conference season, too. Labour was in very ebullient mood, far more cheerful than in previous years since the election when it was all very downbeat. The Conservatives have swung fiercely to the right and that veteran of dozens of conferences, Polly Toynbee, told me that she had never seen such domination by the right as this year. I discussed that, too, with a Libdems source who reckons that it is an effort by the Tories to differentiate themselves from their coalition partners – but I suspect it is fear of UKIP and the Eurosceptics.

Of course we now have a new ministerial team, too as explained here. I think there was an element of clearing the decks in the despised Department for Transport given that only the Libdems minister, Norman Baker survived and that’s because his job is the gift of Nick Clegg, not Cameron. The reshuffle was very much handled by Osborne and that possibly explains the promotion of Simon Burns, a man who does not fill the industry with confidence. His boss, though, Patrick McLoughlin may turn out to be a good appointment.

In Rail, I had fun scoring this year’s industry performance, which of course is already well out of date given the ministerial changes and the West Coast debacle – here . I then wrote about what is actually something of a scandal in The Times here

In September I also wrote two articles launching my mayoral campaign in The Times,

http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2012/09/my-manifesto-to-be-mayor/

and in Surveyor magazine: http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2012/09/my-mayoral-campaign/

Do sign up, too, to my Wolmarforlondon newsletter and twitter feed. Just go to www.wolmarforlondon which is my mayoral campaign site.

On the Wrong Line (obtainable here) and Down the Tube (here) have both been selling well on Kindle and are now available, too, on Google Play store and the Apple iBookstore at the same price. I am currently updating my book on Stagecoach for Kindle but it will not be ready till early in the New Year as I am adding a new chapter and including an exclusive interview with Brian Souter.

And finally, watch out for the second episode of Evan Davis’ BBC 2 series this Sunday at 8pm where I feature in a Victorian Tube train, the old sardine stock from the City & South London, the precursor to the Northern Line.