SWT - our railway

The Letters Page,
The NEWS
Portsmouth


The motivation behind the recently announced job losses at South West Trains (SWT) can only be explained as unbridled GREED.

What else could possibly explain the decision to sack 180 full & part time ticket office staff in addition to platform and other associated front line staff? Although SWT originally asserted that managers and back room staff would comprise the majority of job losses leaked documents have revealed the assertion to be a falsehood with only 22 full and 3 part time affected.

Is it a coincidence the first year repayments fall due to the Treasury from SWT, after receiving a decade of substantial subsidy that the company announces a 10% reduction in the SWT workforce.

Lately fares have been increased by an above inflation rate of 6% with passenger numbers also up, while simultaneously inflation continues to fall and may eventually actually go negative.

Exactly how does the sacking of 10% of the workforce, the substantial majority majority front line, improve the service to the travelling public? What do you do for ticket information if the ticket machine is not working? Similarly will these station staff reductions make easier the travelling experiences of the disabled, elderly, parents with children, visitors to the an area. Also by there very nature railways are incredibly dangerous places so again the reduction in staff begs question the will the railways be less safe and more prone to vandalism? What glimmer of hope have SWT offered, how about the intentional withdrawal of carriages (i.e. seats) thus substantially increasing the chances of passengers having to stand on ALL trains and not just commuter trains.

Surely with SWT, having repeatedly taken the annual subsidy and about to supply an worsening service, an inferiority likely to become more pronounced as the pay back due to the Treasury mounts year on year, then surely the time has come to seriously consider the renationalisation of the railways, and doing so not as a matter of political dogma but rather as a common sense action. The question of any financial compensation is not relevant as a decade of substantial subsidy payments from the tax payer to SWT have already been made, and company dividends paid.

Having for all practical purposes reluctantly nationalized the banks because they were not functioning properly there can be no dispute the renationalisation of the railways is overdue.


Yours faithfully,

Louis Mac Donald
Secretary
Portsmouth Trades Union Council