The End of the Line?

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Sw long until the tracks become too old to use? on the future of British Rail before Christmas. Sir David Serpell and his team of three have taken where Dr.

The Serpell report roundit sees as 'inefficient management', making 'hopelessly Wencen ture potential. Consequen ly, it throws out the whol idea of a further programme electrification and substantial investment. Instead, serpen seems to be altempi ing draw some practical conclusions from emol associated with the Tory government to attack idea of relatively Compterenave manetwork Serpell puts forward six 'options' for future network, all of which involve cuts in services, track, workers, and subsidy, but mostsees such contraction in drastic terms.

The most drastic option of all is option 6, involving the slashing of the present 11,000 miles down to 1,600.

branch lines would go: Cardiff would be station in Wales, while other LU WILL without stations Wond include Shettield. Blackpool, Oxford, Leicester, Sunderland, and Huddersfield.

scot and inf lines would end at Glasgow and Edinburgh. Dundee, Aberdeen and reith would all lose their stations, while in London. St: Pancras and all routes out of there would close down.

aven BR's research and development centre, would have no alway Staggering enough as this may sound, there is more. Serpell stresses that with such a colossal cutback (the like of which is bein discussed nowhere else in the world) fares would have to rise by 40% in real terms, in order to run the railways without a subsidy.

Another, perhaps most telling, saving that Serpell recommends is cutting drastically standards. with which BR is supposed to 'excessive' The sheer gance VIew, coming NUR executive memb-er lan Williams told us:

«No-one's officially given us a copy of the Serpell report yet. But you couldn't expect nything different from that committee. The remit they were given was to study how British Rail could run at a profit - and in the current world situation of railways, that's like asking how British Rail could defy gravity.

It's almost inconceivable that the government will put 40% on commuter fares. But the other aspect is cutting back on the network. If you say no investment, there is no alternative but steady cutbacks. The infrastructure has got to the stage where it needs a lot of money just to keep it going, let alone to expand. The problem is that the unions are not in a very good position to fight after Weighell's record. Obviously we'll be trying. A lot depends on the general secretary election.

Under Weighell, the consistent policy was that we collaborated with the British Rail Board, who collaborated with the government. Now one of the candidates, Charlie Turnock, is presenting himself as a continuator of Weighell".

much publicised during the ASLEF strike last summer, and one with which David Hov steI: sym Poli dre: che] repr to 1 whi sym Gol ies witl Tha ic a patı ked Con par1 gan con ises fact way vell, the Iransport Minihas more than littie pathy.

Last year, the Centre for Icy Studies (which ams up many of Thatr's schemes) published a ort which argued for the version of rail routes inroads. Further'evidence ch points to a more than pathetic hearing for dstein's view by the Toris his close connection hi Professor Alan Walters, itcher's personal economdvisor. Apart from this ronage, it is hard to see / Goldstein was even asto sit on the Enquiry nmittee. He is a senior tner in R. Travers Mor, the firm of transport sultants, which specialin ... Ioadbuilding! More dubious still is the : that Jane's World Rail's 1982/3 edition, which 1529 lists all the major railway consultants, doesn't even mention Travers Morgan. Despite this, when Goldstein criticises BR's obsession with engineering and safety standards, he quotes from a £100,000 survey carried out for the report by... Travers Morgan!

Just in case you haven't quite got the message, Goldstein is keen to rub it in. Not only is his minority report glossily and expensively produced, - by Travers Morgan, of course - but it is itself obsessed... by the need for further studies!

He says "The Department should ensure a suitable professional expertise, in particular in engineering and operational research, is available to the Department to advise on the Board's progress."

Get the message now?

ION CONDI Now is launch a throughout ions to save and resist closure and commentat that Thatch ly shelve the election ye‹ line closure: well in the belt.

They ma we can't afi And anywa quite likely and dusted government wing Labol may find it teresting re: time a sin published, : tain Dr. Ber Chairman o the then M port - and tory won't 1 ; the time to huge campaign the transport un: the rail network all attempts at cutback. Many ars are saying er will most likee report, since it's ar, and wholesale s won't go down : Tory commuter ay be right - but ford to rely on it. y, the report will • be taken down off by any future :, even a right ur administration more than an inad. After all, last nilar report was its author, a cereching, was made if British Rail, by finistry of Transwho's to say hisrepeat itself? LAST year was such a lively one on the railways, that it wasn't easy to keep up with events. There were two stoppages over flexible rostering, the TUC betrayal of ASLEF, the NUR's first national strike for 56 years, and the disastrous sellout after only 18 hours. There was also Sid Weighell's welcome demise after being caught on the fiddle at Labour Party Conference.

Last year also saw BR withdraw closure notices at its workshops at Shildon, forwich and swindon, only to be followed up with six thousand voluntary redundancies spread over all BR workshops.

The joint action committee at Horwich loco works has been at the forefront of he campaign to save the vorkshops from closure - i threat which still looms real enough. Its latest initiative is 'Great Rail Carve-up: the Workers' Response', a 10 page document outlining the chronic investment crisis in BR, and suggesting various alternative policies.

BR is the most underfinanced railway in the Western world.. In 1980, for "instance, £316 million was spent on new investment, compared with £1,219"million in Western Germany, £740 million France, eTAA million in Granno £476 million in Italy, and £355 million in Spain. In the same year, precisely nothing was spent on new track, compared with £101 million in France, £167 milion in Italy.

Not surprisingly, traffic - both freight and passenger - is being lost by BR at an alarming rate. On the passenger side alone, there nas been a 7% drop in traffic on BR during the period 196779. The same years saw passenger traffic increase in all other major international networks, ranging from 28% in West Germany to 83% in the Soviet Union.

As a catalogue of woe, the Horwich pamphlet deserves full marks. From electrificațion to rail freight, from new locomotives to management turnover rates: the tables of dismal statistics and lists of facts are useful for anyone interested in understanding me Iear lever ol crisis on BR.

Horwich unions have produced a 'Workers' answer' to the rundow of rail. But is it an adequate answer?

ment.

The railworkers are face with an unprecedented att ack now, and need a rea force a retreaty the govern 'workers' response', ment. The pamphlet con centrates too heavily 0I what is happening to the rait ways as an industry, rather than pointing to the mas job losses (a thousand per month last year), the attack: on basic working condition (8 hour day, etc.), and des perately low wages of mos! rail workers.

This aspect of the Great Rail Carve-up' is just as im portant as the lack of ner rolling stock, electrification etc. In fact, only by bring. ing a new confidence to the rail unions rank and file i there much hope of turning the tide on BR. It's no acci dent that as paltry wage deals have been accepted by the rail unions, always coup led with wide-ranging jot losses and productivity meas ures, so BR management has stepped up the level of its offensive. At no time have productivity commitments from the unions led to more investment; quite the reverse.

It has long been one o the greatest problems the: the rail unions, particularl the NUR and TSSA, hate seen the railways problem! as common to managemen: and workforce alike, and have adopted a corporatis: approach to trade unionist.

It's high time this myt of 'common interest' #21

----- pull-quotes -----

'Taking up where Beeching left off'? Dave Lunts reports ment THE long-awaited

fully leaked appeared, care- Before Christmas. Sir Dayd

Beeching left off, and where nate feared to read. the Tories