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Three days into his new job and Richard Bowker winds me up
This column has always been about what's happening now and what's going to, or not going to, happen next. Other than when it informs current issues, the past remains another country.
But there is one exception to this rule. Where people today traduce the achievements of British Rail to justify the present, I get stroppy.
And on his third day as Strategic Rail Authority Chairman Richard Bowker, addressed the Rail Passengers Council Annual Conference. And his speech included the following:
‘I do not want to see a railway simply doing its best to play “catch up”. The railway is moving a third more passengers than at privatisation. Remember all the statistics of the 1980s? Ridership down, freight down, investment down. That's been turned on its head'.
Well, I do remember the 1980s and what's been turned on its head is the truth. During the speech I could see Chris Green out of the corner of my eye, and he visibly stiffened at this passage.
Because the statistics of the 1980s show that ridership continued to rise and fall with the economy, passenger journeys ending up at pretty much the level where they started. But London commuter ridership at the peak of the Thatcher-Lawson boom has yet to be equalled, despite an unprecedented period of economic growth in the ‘90s.
Freight certainly went down in the 1980s. Carryings in 1980 were 153 million tonnes and had fallen to 143 million by 1989. In between there was the disastrous slump of 1985 but most of the business came back.
It was 1990s, with the loss of coal traffic, which saw tonnage down to 97.3million in 1994/95 from which it recovered to 105.4 in 1997/98 and is now around 102million. True, tonne kilometres have risen by 10% since 1989/90. But BR's annual net tonne miles for freight went from 10.96million in 1980 to a peak of 11.25million in 1988/89 and ended the decade at 10.4million. So down, but within the effects of the economy.
As for investment down, where to start, in a decade that saw a brand new fleet of DMUs for Regional Railways, electric multiple units coming out of York in a steady stream for Network South East, freight locos ordered, ticket offices re-equipped and the East Coast Main Line electrified.
So if you want to compare today with a grim past, the 1980s would not be my decade of choice.
Afterwards the SRA's Director External Relations tried to persuade me that his new boss had been talking about freight. When I pointed out the references to ‘ridership' and ‘investment', he replied ‘you have to talk things up'.
Does it matter? It does to me. Richard Bowker has to believe the only way is up as he starts the long journey to the promised land Mk 2. But if he also believes that meretricious tosh he is being fed about the 1980s we've all got problems. Because when you are hopelessly lost, backtracking means that at least you are starting from a known point.
Sorry, sorry. This was going to be a multifaceted old style Informed Sources with lots of short sparky items and a little quiz, to see in the New Year.
Then two stonking exclusives dropped on the desk which had to be reported and analysed in depth.
Typical of these hard times during which I have come to admire the fortitude of our readership. At times I have wondered whether the latest column would drive readers into terminal depression – only to be heartened by your encouraging and questioning feedback.
So can I ask all readers to accept a standing ovation from me and the magazine staff, for loyalty beyond the call of duty. And would the Ian Allan printing team also take a bow for holding the presses, literally, and enabling us to be first with the news, as well as with the in depth reporting and analysis which is our forte.
But the outlook for 2002 is not entirely more of the same. I have just been to research another diamond in the sea of mud and from an unexpected quarter. And we will be celebrating a series of ruby anniversaries.
Meanwhile, the seasons greetings.