Author Archives: George Stephenson Junior

Points and crossings

 

Pretty much everyone seems to have an opinion about the railways, even those who don’t travel by train.  I’ve worked in the railway for quite a long time now, spanning the nationalised British Rail and the current privatised structure.  The current structure often frustrates me, but there have been some good things in recent years as well.  The growth in passenger numbers over the last 15 years couldn’t have been dreamed of when I started work, for example.

However, what frustrates me most is that no-one, as far as I know, has ever evaluated whether the benefits of the current structure are outweighed by the disadvantages (I realise that this is a more general fault in public policy making).

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged and | 28 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Chris Cory
    Completely agree with this article and comments from Simon, John and Nigel. Some years ago we decided that as a progressive party of the left we should focus ...
  • Nigel Quinton
    Excellent article, totally agree with your observations, and for once disagree with Mick Taylor, when he states that "Focussing on men and boys will necessarily...
  • John Hann
    Over the last 40 years we have sold off almost everything that is not nailed down including most of our manufacturing industries. As a result young men unqua...
  • Mick Taylor
    When I went to university about 5-6% of the population did so. I studied economics. After 4 years at 2 universities, I found there was little or no work in my f...
  • Meg Thomas
    This is an excellent article. Thanks. 'Men held more power a century ago.' Sorry, men still hold more power. This can still be the case whilst we also see ...