Rail system threatened with cuts

[george matthews]

The British government is plotting to close large parts of the rail network says the Independent.

Ministers are preparing ways of closing or "mothballing" large sections of the railway network, according to an official document which was slipped out without publicity last week...

The rail system is heading for a financial crisis in the next few years, as the Treasury has demanded that current record levels of subsidy be slashed. Passengers have been forced to pay big fare increases this year as ministers hike up the premiums train companies pay to run the service. The debt of Network Rail, the not-for-profit company that runs the track, will soar to £20bn by 2008. It will need £1bn a year just to service this debt.


http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/transp ... 341731.ece

[David Benton]

Well , thats bad news . i thought rail was undergoing a revival . clearly the costs of that revival are becoming apparent . Hopefully most of these lines can be saved .

[george matthews]

Well , thats bad news . i thought rail was undergoing a revival . clearly the costs of that revival are becoming apparent . Hopefully most of these lines can be saved .

I would like to seea map. I expect that in a couple of weeks Rail magazine (for which Wolmar also writes) will have a map and more details.

I can say that the lines threatened must be in England as Scotland and Wales have their own governments. Scotland is opening several new lines, including part of the Waverly route.

It may just be scare tactics to persuade local government to put up more money, or to get Network Rail to reduce costs still more.

Wolmar has always argued that the industry should never have been fragmented into so many different companies. Network rail is bringing some of them together again, but it is diofficult to get costs down again.

[David Benton]

It may be difficult to cut costs more , but how much cheaper is a bus service , compared to one man dmu service . i guess the big difference is the maintenance of the right of wayand it would be pretty hard to reduce this in the short term . are most of these branches double track ?

[george matthews]

It may be difficult to cut costs more , but how much cheaper is a bus service , compared to one man dmu service . i guess the big difference is the maintenance of the right of wayand it would be pretty hard to reduce this in the short term . are most of these branches double track ?

As I have no idea what lines they want to close I can't say.