Alas, Tom, you are sadly misinformed about British trains.
They continue as overcrowded and unreliable as ever, with a little extra added by commercial
pressures. For example, the rail companies' payroll policies are so highly optimized that when a
driver oversleeps there's nobody else to drive the train and several hundred people arrive late for
work. It's illegal in this country to transport cattle in the conditions imposed on human
passengers.
As often as not privatization is simply an opportunity for stupid, lazy public-sector employees to
masquerade as entrepreneurs. A railway employee was recently quoted countering a complaint from a
passenger with "Do you think the railway is being run for your benefit?".
In any case, I think Dave is talking about the (unprivatized) London Underground, which still stands
as a warning of how thoroughly bad the public sector can be. Maintenance gangs take 900 man-hours to
complete a 60-hour job, others try to fit a straight section of rail on a curved piece of track,
passengers are left for hours in stifling tunnels because nobody will take responsibility for
evacuating them. At the moment, two lines are closed for several weeks because a motor fell off a
train and derailed it.
That's why I prefer to bike to work.
Chris
Tom Sherman <
[email protected]> wrote in message news:<
[email protected]>...
> Dave Larrington wrote:
> >
> > Me. If I didn't have my upright I'd be commuting on by public transport, which is horrid,
> > smelly and slow....
>
> I thought that privatization had done wonders to improve the British passenger rail system. Maybe
> the same needs to be done with other forms of mass transit?
>
> Tom Sherman - Quad Cities USA (Illinois side) RANS "Wavewind" and Rocket, Earth Cycles Sunset and
> Dragonflyer