Mein Flughafen hat Verspätung!

[Bob Williams]

(My Airport is delayed) – who believed this could happen in the supposedly most efficient, finest engineers in the world?

http://tinyurl.com/y5hsupb5

My mate Rolf sounded embarrassed when I asked him about this. Then he became very, very angry and forgot his usually impeccable English: “Gib einem Politiker einen Job, und sieh zu, wie es schief geht!” – Give a job to a politician, see it go wrong! Well, not all in those words, but I don’t want to spray obscenities around here, even German ones. Basically, he blames politicians, who should not ever be allowed to have control and fiscal responsibility for any projects.

Well, I told him, we are quite used to politicians screwing up projects over here. How long have you got Rolf? He laughed and resumed in English: “Maybe we should have had British companies making it, it would be finished a long time ago and working now?”    –   “Finished probably. Working, possibly. Over budget by more than it is now, definitely!”

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Dave Rice]

That explains why I’ll be flying into Schönefeld Airport. In the back of my mind I knew there was some reason I shouldn’t be.

I went to IFSEC at the London Excel a few weeks ago. I should have been going on Crossrail from Reading but it was Paddington and the old hot and sweaty Bakerloo and 2 changes. Doesn’t look like I’ll be using it next year either.

Now they’re talking about Crossrail 2! What about spending some money elsewhere? We had electrification cancelled.

[Richard]

Yes it has been a thorough and through a far from Teutonic production, rather it has been a sad politician produced mess, just a little more expensive and public than usual, even for politicians projects. We have a few on the boil, Cross-rail by now perhaps thoroughly enraged rail rather than just cross. HS2 a political inspiration from the EU melded into a through and through UK style camel of a project except that this camel will probably never have any legs. All should and could have been so much better only now they will never deliver what was needed, by the scheduled delivery date or when they happen along, if they ever do. The Germans are not perfect but my goodness they usually do rather better than this.

[Bob Williams]

Crossrail and HS2 are just two examples of what is wrong in the UK: London gets the lions’ share of any national budget, the rest of us get the leftovers. Dave, the East Coast mainline electrification was also cancelled. To get to London, I would either have to drive or take buses (note the plural) to Gainsborough (near the Notts. border) or drive/ take buses to Cleethorpes. Alternatively, drive to Skegness and change at Grantham. The Louth-Mablethorpe-Skegness Stagecoach service now stops at Mablethorpe. No Sunday service at all to Mablethorpe or Louth.

Meanwhile, bus services in London are 24/7. Not that I would ever want to live in any city, never mind London. No offence to Forumite Londoners, I’m just a country boy! HS2 is unnecessary, but new trains and coaches are many years behind schedule on our lines. Check out the state of an LNER or Hull Trains train pulling into Kings Cross, compared with the gleaming transport from other lines. Electrification has been cancelled many times. We are Third World up here!

Soon London will sit over the world’s largest, most expensive rabbit warren.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Richard]

Bob, I do not dispute your distaste for HS2 but remember it was an EU project that was supposed to go even further to tie all parts of the EU together with high speed rail. Cross rail was a different project, designed to provide an in-house need. While it was an expensive London centric project, remember that most of the taxation revenue comes from London, so it is right that there is necessary expenditure to support the milk cow. Where I will agree is that funding of other projects outside London to turn them into money generation and life improved areas is also vital and currently neglected. The sad history of too many projects starts with a fond desire and ends in an expensive mess. In my opinion the rail unions most share the odium insisting on outmoded staffing models for the sake of history, making rail less efficient, rather than urging better planning and execution to benefit both their members and the wider good. In the past the German model has worked rather better to achieve this end, airports excepted! Frankly planning and great management are not our strong hand, but are they anybody’s these days?

I have long held that public, (putrid?) transport is expertly designed to run from where I am not to where I do not want to go, at a price that I do not want to pay. I hate visiting London, though I have done so three times in the past six months riding shot gun for my wife on hospital visits. It is unlikely that we will be repeating the forlorn experience ever again. The level of knife crime and the perception of a crime round every corner made them stress full experiences. I never felt this way when I worked there nearly 20 years ago but now, you can have it as a gift, just do not expect a gift wrap.

[Ed P]

If you remember the Crossrail TV series the Project Manager for BAM Nuttall was in fact an American female. I’ll steer clear of the female bit as I have met and worked with very competent female managers, however putting a Yank into the mix was probably not a good idea as the Project Manager would have had to manage a unionised situation and the interfaces with the general public and worst of all the incompetent supremo Chris Greyling. I suspect that many Union strike issues were down to Greyling and an American used to firing staff or toughing out strikes.

They should have chosen a manager who was used to working around/through Unions, idiot Civil Servants and heads of the Dept of Transport. Any manager who succeeded in bringing home a project within contingency would have been a star performer.Such limitations should also have been placed on sub-contractor selection.

[Richard]

Sadly the folly of unions demanding excess jobs long predates your whipping boy Greyling. Trains that were designed to have a driver only in the cab as they did in most of the rest of the world when they moved away from steam. British rail forced the design to have a three man team because otherwise the fireman and stoker would not have anywhere to go for example. So the over manning and waste has a long, bitter and expensive history in our reviled railways. Tis a shame in my mind that dinosaurs on all sides neither listened cared nor wanted to advance the system to be future fit and fully functional, so it is still best suited to generating arguments then success.

I do not have the time to dig into the history of the strikes and other miss fires of Crossrail, though I am aware that it misses out on several key stops that many complain should have been included in a real, well planned Crossrail project. I see that it started in 2007 though its planning history can be traced back to 1941 both well before Greyling was anywhere near, so the reference does appear poorly aimed. The earlier stages of the program suggested the American project leader was brought in following her proven track record on other ‘mega’ projects, a status that none based in this country could match. Yes, dealing with the civil service, and the mishmash of unions in the construction industry is a nightmare for anyone stuck with the task. However, she worked through the teams of managers brought in for their specific expertise in various aspects of major project work. No one person could, should, or would control all aspects, good project managers should construct the team below who will make their work look easy. As I hinted before big projects mean big chances for mischief-making and no doubt some took their chance.  I have not seen any great burst of news about such disputes on the civil construction aspects of the project. It is one of the largest rail projects, so perhaps it is no surprise that challenges should be encountered on a grander scale than many were able to appreciate. No doubt there will be even more arguments about automated trains, guards, station sweepers, ticket sellers and the like when things get closer to the start of operation.

Happily I am not likely to have my travel plans go anywhere near the place.

[Ed P]

Richard if you read the link the strikes were just about money as Crossrail Controllers were paid less than their counterparts.Anyone who has dealt with Unions knows that it is a managed dance between Management and the Stewards, if Management are not allowed to participate in the dance then a strike is certain.

Based on my personal acquaintance with a Rail Union Convenor for part of Govia,  blame rests almost entirely on Greyling and the DoT setting inflexible and silly negotiation parameters, and a management incapable of dealing civilly with their Unions.  I’d therefore put Greyling at the top of any blame list.

[Richard]

I guess you are referring to the ongoing disputes over the use of guards as seat warmers now that they no longer have to hand crank a wheel to apply the coach’s brakes as they once did. It is but one battle in a long history, take ticket offices for example. I understand that currently well over 90% of the increasing numbers of passengers do not use a ticket office, yet the unions demand to have fully staffed ticket offices and fight against mixed use staff or horror of horrors close or reduce the size of ticket offices, perhaps making some mixed use with other retail functions. I accept that ticket machines are a pile of crap at the moment, though to be honest I avoid using them and did use a ticket office on the three occasions in the past six months that I used a train. Had a good, reliable, intelligible ticket machine or online option existed I might well have used that method, reducing still further, (by 12 tickets, they were return journeys) the number of tickets sold.

I am not going to defend either side in this mess neither are worth the time of day. They are in a hostile environment right from the off, having to listen to the sad depressing dirge of you must have a ticket or pay a penalty fare, blah, blah, blah after every station made me want to scream. The problem of fare evasion may be a real one, but treating every prisoner sorry passenger as a thief in waiting, does not make the experience the slightest bit better. This has been the case for long before the time of your favourite whipping boy Greyling. He is not the managers or the union reps though he does have to try to control the costs. Expensive fares only cover part of the cost; subsidies, (explanation, yours and my taxes) make up the rest. ‘The Government‘ does not have any money except for the taxes extracted from every tax payer and in the case of this one, I want value for money, don’t you? I cannot see it anywhere near on the horizon in either the railways or that other loss-leader the NHS where legacy restrictive practices rule the cost base and woe betide anyone who rocks that boat. Oh, before anyone suggests I would like to see it privatised that is not what I am seeking; but some better cost management, improved training where needed and improved, not increased management with less empire building would be a fine starting point.

[Ed P]

My friend’s role was as a complete bystander in the Southern relationship disaster as his division of Govia had previously reached an amicable settlement apart from a Cassandra-like forecast of problems with the new timetable due to Govia not scheduling in the extra manpower required for route-learning time. This was despite a doubling in route length. (Drivers are supposed to learn *exactly where each signal is, and their function, what to do in emergency etc. From memory this takes each and every driver a month or so). It did however open my eyes to Greyling’s malign role in it all, and how he could set impractical rules for Govia that made any settlement all-but impossible. (Govia carried the can for Ministerial interference, but were kept whole financially at tax payers expense)

*I assume that this is a belt and braces in case of a night-time signal failure as they do have some proceed with caution steps that they can take in some circumstances. – this is the total limit of my knowledge gleaned from chats in the pub and is probably quite inaccurate!

The Crossrail/Elizabeth line dispute was something quite different but doubtless Greyling played a malign role as this was contemporary with the Southern dispute. We would need an FOI to check this, but it would be refused on the usual get-out of ‘commercial’ grounds.

[Author]

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