God reading this thread is painful, I wonder what exactly the people criticising TfW expect them to do? They can't just magic the new fleet of trains out of their ass, it doesn't matter if it was still privatised or whatever - it would still be the same issue. As others have pointed out, the 'gift' money that TfW is getting is for infrastructure projects that are already in progress, would you honestly rather see TfW just abandon every infrastructure project they're working on and leave them half finished? Or do you want to just see every rail line in Wales withdrawn as they're all just "unprofitable" and are so
clearly not worth running. All so that money could just fund what? The NHS having a lack of funding is a larger issue across the country, it's not something the Welsh government will solve by cutting back TfW's capex spending.
This is the same stupid mindset that led to the privatisation of the railways under the conservatives, and the Beeching cuts before it: people went from seeing the railways as a social service, to something that should operate on a profitable basis. We don't build roads and expect them to directly make money. It should be the same with the railways, it's about the benefits that they deliver to the people they serve, who are able to get to education, to work or travel for leisure which I'd argue benefits the economy to more of an extent than the railways need to be subsidised. The past few decades have shown that shoving everyone into cars and buses simply isn't possible nor equitable, not to mention completely unsustainable from an environmental perspective.
Can't believe I'm having to say it on a rail forum: but the railways are necessary and this rapid criticism of TfW who are currently battling problems that were not caused by them (Covid, manufacturer issues) or were the result of their predecessor (Keolis-Amey) is quite pointless.
Hell, I'm an example of TfW trying to fix things: I'm starting as a trainee driver with TfW soon - getting enough staff to actually reliably run their services is another one of the long term problems that they're aiming to solve.
And I wonder what these people in the thread are implying by saying TfW doesn't deserve to be subsidised? That the privatised railway has been working so well, and so
obviously needs to be continued? (Maybe do some reading into the increased subsidies since privatisation if you care about that so much, railway subsidies have increased since privatisation). While yes, there certainly are ways that the costs of railway operations can be reduced, you have to get to a point where you decide if it's really worth it. Is it worth not having any on board staff apart from the driver? Is that really a better experience? Is cutting service lengths and frequencies good for the customer? Is closing lines or withdrawing services good for the communities they serve?
We should be aiming to instead attract more customers to the railways: which is only possible through sustained investment like TfW is trying to do with the new train fleet, the infrastructure improvements and service frequency/length/destination enhancements. Cutting things just will only help to continue the death spiral the railways have been forced into over the last few decades because of neo-liberal conservative ideology.
/rant over
Bloody hell, the last thing this country needs right now are higher rail fares.
I'm curious what infinite money tree this guy things everyone has access to to pay even more for rail tickets!