What went wrong with the new Thameslink timetable
Theo wrote:
In uk.railway Recliner wrote:
Probably not, but the structure of the privatised industry forces higher
standards than if it was one monolithic company. A modern day BR would
probably only be about as safe as DB, Renfe or SNCF. Our privatised railway
is much better.
How? I don't see TOCs focusing on safety because it hurts the bottom line
if you kill customers.
The structure of the privatised industry was actually pretty good at killing
people - in the Railtrack era. Then the Government (who had recently
changed colour) realised that deregulated privatisation was perhaps not such
a great plan and the pendulum swung the other way. There has been a lot of
investment in safety and a degree of risk aversion. Some might say that's
counterproductive (eg the inability to reopen lines due the cost escalation
of replacing level crossings with bridges), but it has had the desired
effect.
But it seems this focus on safety is precisely because the privatised
industry killed enough people that the government had to step in.
Yes, so you agree with me.
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