East Midland Trains - an example of the benefits of privatisation!

Last night I went to the National Liberal Club for an ALDE reception. It was a great evening and entertaining given I was seated between two of our esteemed peers, Navnit Dholakia and John Lee. I confess I spent some of the evening making the case for revisiting our Trident policy - but about 10.45 began my journey home. I knew I was pushing it to get the 11.15 East Midlands train back to Luton, but my delight at making it was soon dented by seeing the "DELAYED" signs.

The story was that a train engine was on fire near Luton and there were no trains running. The transport police informed us that we should make other arrangements as there were no coaches. I toyed with the idea of staying over with a pal, but decided against it, given that my "evening" attire was not quite the ticket for the hustings at Brentwood School I was attending in the morning.

I headed over to King's Cross, just in time to jump on a train to Hitchin - thankful that I no longer lived in Bedford when my alternative routes would have had to be Milton Keynes of Sandy. But even going to Hitchin meant a £20 taxi fare home.

However, my irritation faded into insignificance as I travelled into London this morning with my daughter and her friend. Her friend had been on the 8.20 train out of St Pancras last night and they had been stuck for four hours outside Luton! It took that long to turn off the electricity apparently - then the whole train were given glowlights and guided the half hour walk up the track to Luton Airport Parkway. The company included an elderly lady who had to be carried, and many with heavy cases who also had to be helped.

Then this evening I read Duncan Borrowman's blog, who had been stuck coming the opposite way and ended up having to take a taxi all the way home! So two important questions about a company (along with First Capital Connect whose services were also affected) with little on no regard for passengers. Not only do they pay scant regard for the hundreds of stranded commuters, clearly having no contingency in place to get them home, but also they have no contingency in place to deal with passengers stranded on the track. How and why on earth did it take 4 hours to "rescue" stranded passengers?

If ever there was a graphic demonstration of the problem of proxy customers - this is it. Our privatised train companies have a captive audience. We have no other realistic alternative, and they know it - we can't vote with our feet because our feet have no place else to go. I have never travelled on East Midland trains when there has been a problem and found anyone who thinks privatisation was a good idea. Frankly we are all treated like compliant mushrooms. Now I understand there may be an argument that the problem is that privatisation hasn't gone far enough - that may be the case - whatever - the truth is that this half way house serves none of us ........except of course the private rail companies and their shareholders - well, wouldn't you be laughing all the way to the bank with this sort of monopoly?

Margaret Moran MP - make the most of it.........

This morning I boarded the train at Leagrave - a little further North than Luton but not as far North as the arctic wastes of Bedford. Door to door when I travelled to 25 The North Colonnade from Bedford it was 61.1 miles..........now door to door, having moved to Luton, it is 40 miles exactly (courtesy of AA Route finder!).

Occasionally I stay over in London with friends in North London - then it takes me exactly the same time to get to work despite being 34 miles closer! Now, courtesy of AA Route finder, I discover that if my journey took me to Westminster instead of Canary Wharf, it would be 5 miles less - a mere 35 miles! The fast train from Luton is only 23 minutes, even faster on a good day when it is the right kind of leaves and snow........on such a good day it is possible for me to get door to door in 1 hour and 8 minutes - that means an hour was I to be heading for Westminster.

Now, I am well aware that our hardpressed MPs do occasionally find themselves sitting late in Westminster. I do sympathise, I occasionally find myself sitting late in Westminster, (usually in a local hostelry after FPC ;-)) but unless ridiculously late, I manage to jump on a late night train back to Luton and hop into a cab. Sometimes I have been known to arrive home at 2.30 and leave to return 5 hours later..........But, I agree, not a good idea. And if I am working I am well within my rights to expect my employer to pay for me to stay over in a hotel. As Kelvin Hopkins apparently does, as his fellow Luton MP clearly does not.

So....hat tip to Duncan Borrowman for picking this story up. Having stood against Kelvin Hopkins in the 2005 elections, I know him to be a man of integrity. I may not agree with him on everything, but as I said to the people of Luton North on the night of the elections, they may not have elected a Lib Dem, but they got the next best thing given his record of joining us in the lobbies! Margaret Moran, it appears, is a totally different kettle of fish. She is now my MP and I have already discovered how reluctant she is to engage with us unwashed masses of Luton South. She appears to be universally despised - even my apolitical mum hasn't a good word to say for her. I experienced for myself her obsession with the photo opportunity. Arriving late for the photo call with Operation Black Vote in the last election she was furious that the filming/photos had taken place without her. Clearly her interest was in image and spin, no evidence of any commitment whatsoever to listening to the concerns of the BME community.

So, I was not surprised to hear that she was unable to manage the short train journey from Luton to Westminster - perhaps that is because she spends so little time in Luton, who knows. Some time in the next 15 months we will have an opportunity to show erstwhile Blair babe Ms Moran what the people of Luton South make of her cavalier and self serving attitude.