Rail celebrations fail to impress commuters

Press, 26 July 1986, Page 35

Rail celebrations fail to impress commuters

NZPA-Reuter London As London marks the 150th anniversary this year of its first passenger railway, many commuters see little cause to celebrate the modern descendant of that first steamdriven carriage. A smoky, sputtering Victorian train, chugging along a 6km track between Greenwich and London, was the first link in one of the earliest urban railway systems. For the 40,000 commuters who now wearily make their way into London by train each day, the sprawling surface rail network around London seems anything but a noble inheritance. London is served by two giant rail systems. One is the famous underground electric trains (known by locals as the Tube) but the one featured in the anniversary celebrations is the huge network of surface railways run by British Rail, the Stateowned national system. British Rail is celebrating the anniversary with an exhibition next month at Cannon Street station in the centre of the city, featuring old steam engines, model railways and other memorabilia. An exhibition of prints, drawings and paintings from the period has also been told. One cartoon shows an artist’s interpretation, back in the 1820 s, of a “traffic jam of the future,” with strange steam-driven vehicles colliding and exploding in a

grey cloud of smoke and passengers flying through the air.

The drawing mocked those who, back then, could imagine no problems with the infant railway. The artist might just as well have been talking to today’s grumpy London commuter. In spite of efforts by British Rail to boost its image and convince travellers that it cares — including sending staff to “charm school” — a new report shows that London commuters think trains are still crowded and dirty, arrive late and that staff are unhelpful. Slick commercials have filled television screens with the smiling faces of train staff as part of a £9 million ($25.74 million) British Rail advertising campaign aimed at driving home the theme: “We’re getting there!” “But they’re not there yet,” says “Which?” a consumer affairs magazine which surveyed 800 train travellers. “It seems British Rail is some way off achieving the aims it has ambitiously set itself,” the report says. The report says the railway has largely succeeded in improving its national service. But London still seems the poor relation. Some of the city’s rail system was dilapidated, with services falling below the most minimal standards, said a report in May by a Government-

appointed group which monitors transport.

“Here is a set of railway services, plumb in the heart of the greatest of cities, and they are a disgrace,” said the London Regional Passengers’ Committee. The plight of the commuter has even been raised in Parliament. A Conservative politician, Mr Bowen Wells, said commuters were disgusted with "miserable, dirty and inefficient" service at Liverpool Street, a main station near London’s financial district, which he called one of the filthiest in England. Another parliamentarian asked the railway for the names and addresses of season ticket holders so he could write to his constituents and apologise for the poor train service to London. British Rail gave him the list, then changed its mind and took it back. The last few years have been a rough time for British Rail. It has been hit by heavy losses totalling £408.3 million ($ll6 million) for the 15 months ending March this year. Moreover, it has set out to cut its Government funding (it has been subsidised by taxpayers’ money since soon after nationalisation in 1948) 25 per cent over three years to £7ll million ($2.03 billion). British Rail says help is on the way for the troubled London and south-east region.

The region has a new director, Mr Chris Green, a high-flying executive who gained a reputation as a tough trouble-shooter while director of British Rail’s Scotland network. Mr Green says “operation pride,” a £lO million ($28.4 million) scheme to whip the commuter rail system into shape, is aimed at boosting the disgruntled commuter’s morale. New trains will be bought, old ones repainted, stations given a facelift and 1700 staff recruited. He says British Rail is already closing in on many of its stated goals. For instance, he says 90 per cent of the region’s trains now arrive on time or within five minutes. “Which?” found in its survey that only half the trains were doing that well, with another 26 per cent arriving between six and 30 minutes late. London travellers remain as sceptical as ever. Commuters at a central London station stood muttering in disbelief when Mr Green, there to launch the new campaign, told them things were getting rosier. In the background loudspeakers announced that one train was being delayed for lack of a guard.

British Rail, which admits it still falls short of the mark much of the time, says criticisms like those brought out in the consumer report are fair and concern the railway.