Fixing Britain’s railways in the holistic sense is controversial. I have compiled a modest manifesto of how ticketing could be dragged kicking and screaming into the second quarter of the 21st century.
Fixing the nation’s railways in the sense of mending and modernising the infrastructure also causes many arguments, especially over a bank holiday.
From 8pm on Saturday to 8am on Monday, the southernmost 75 miles of the link connecting London King’s Cross with Yorkshire, northeast England and Scotland will close completely, between the capital and Peterborough. The prospect of a rail replacement bus from Bedford, the Thameslink terminus on the East Midlands line from London St Pancras International, to Peterborough, will tip the most hopeful journey into misery. Rather than a 47-minute intercity journey, passengers must invest around two and a half hours and several handfuls of hassle.
Their temperament may not be improved by the knowledge that some sacrifice is necessary for a brighter future. The work is part of the East Coast Digital Programme – intended to deliver signalling information direct to the driver. After almost two centuries of strictly analogue signalling, the expensive and fragile lineside equipment will be obsolete. And there should be less copper cable for villains to steal – as they did this week on the West Coast Main Line, causing mayhem from Glasgow to London.
The investment is desperately needed. When best to invoke those rail replacement buses? Inevitably, that question is modified: what is the least bad time to close one of the UK’s key arteries?
At this point, Network Rail summons the ghost of the father of utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham. His prescription: the option that ensures “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”. In a Network Rail context, that becomes damage limitation: “the least unhappiness of the lowest number”. Choosing the Sunday in the middle of a bank holiday weekend is arguably the best call. The busiest days of the weekend are Friday, Saturday and Monday, and many of the people affected are flexible enough to either shift their travel time or take the hit of the Sunday slowdown. Better, rail bosses believe, than impeding commuters and business travellers on working days.
But perhaps the decision to close the line during a bank holiday…
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