Any chance of someone quoting the article as I can't load the page at the moment.
Time to reset the railway
We cannot afford to spend around £10 bn a year subsidising the railway to run nearly empty trains around the country. Nor is it a green option to run diesels and electrics drawing some electricity from fossil fuels when they have so few people on them.
The railway management need to use the current lull in railway use to make two important sets of changes. The first is to establish new timetables geared to the big change in work patterns COVID policies have brought on. The railway is currently planned to earn much of its fares revenue from five day a week commuters wishing to travel at peak times. This business will be massively reduced. We need new flexible ticketing to allow people rolling and increasing discounts the more they travel the same route for work purposes. The railway is now trying to tempt many more people to travel by train for leisure. It is difficult to see why this should be highly subsidised as it is discretionary and is more likely to be taken up by the better off.
The second set of issues are based on technology. Modern trains can be more fully automated in ways which may enhance safety and certainly raise productivity. Safety must remain the prime consideration. Managements need to sort out with the Unions new manning arrangements that reflect business needs, timetable changes and train automation opportunities. There can be offers of no compulsory redundancies around programmes of change to get the workforce and its skills and job descriptions into line with new needs.
Doubtless many of you still think HS2 should be cancelled. There is no sign of the government wishing to do this, and it has now committed substantial resource to carving an expensive route out of London. I am not expecting a change of decision on the London to Birmingham part of this project.
Another article, this time from his local newspaper:
The commuter rebellion
Westminster Diary Sir John Redwood
Sir John Redwood is the MP for Wokingham
The Wokingham Paper
26 Aug 2021
MANY former commuters seem to be singing “I don’t want to go to work on a train in the rain” to adapt on old pop-song parody.
It seems increasingly clear that the Covid lockdowns have made something snap in many five-day-a-week train commuters' minds.
They have discovered they can do much of their job from home.
They have saved serious money on not buying season tickets.
Above all they have been spared the difficult local roads to the station, the fight for a car park place, and ticket, and the lottery of getting a seat on the train.
All that strain and worry has gone out of life.
On that busy office day will the train come on time?
On the morning when you need to meet the boss, will your train be delayed by leaves on the line or the late arrival of the train in front?
Will you get drenched walking from the station to the office?
Going home might you have one of those nightmare journeys when you are stuck in a stationary train for too long, ringing home to apologise and say you haven’t a clue when you will make it back.
Many commuters with all too many memories of late and cancelled trains, an absence of seats and a dearth of reliable information about what has gone wrong suddenly see the chance to duck out of many of those journeys and opt for a different working life.
It looks as if many offices will be adapted for hybrid working with many more people logging in remotely.
Employers who may prefer more to come and work in the office will decide that to keep some of the best talent they need to be flexible.
They will decide to downsize their floor space to get a property saving out of the change.
All this will knock a big hole in railway revenues. I will look at what government should do with the trains in a later post.
The commuter revolt is the result of poor and expensive services over many past years.