The £145
million profit declared by the Go-Ahead Group is a direct drain on fare-payers’
and taxpayers’ cash that should be invested in the bus and rail industries
The group’s profit was funded by nearly £200
million in subsidy for its three rail franchises over 2007/08,
inflation-busting fares hikes and untold amounts of public money finding their
way into the group’s bus operations from local authorities. The company reported a 23 % rise in operating
profits to the end of June and a 16 % hike in dividend payouts to shareholders
to £81 million. The shareholders are just shovelling public subsidy
straight into their bank accounts.
The group’s relentless drive for profits
is also undermining safety and service. Apparently all this public money is not
enough for them. They are embarking on a mad cost-cutting attempt to do
away with guards on South Eastern.
Nearly 500
guards and drivers at Go-Ahead subsidiary South Eastern are already balloting
for strike action over an attempt to do away with guards on new Javelin trains.
The company’s plans, in breach of
existing agreements, involve transferring control of powered doors on trains
carrying up to 1,000 passengers – 20 % more than Eurostar – to drivers, and
replacing guards with a new non-safety critical post without the training in
on-board safety and train protection, route-knowledge and licence that guards
must have.
A twelve-car
train made up of two of the new units, with no walk-through between units, will
carry passengers through tunnels west of Ebbsfleet that together are at least
as long as the Channel tunnel, and the union’s view is that there should be a
fully safety-trained guard in each portion.
The ballot closes
on Thursday September 11th.
To add
insult to injury, the rest of us are facing fare rises up to three per cent
ahead of inflation “I hope that passengers facing inflation-busting fares
increases and massive overcrowding will join us in defending safety standards
against an attack motivated only by the desire to make even bigger profits,”
Bob Crow said.
See also:
Southeastern train crews to ballot over threat to guards by Rick Grogan (RMT)
Friday, 15 August 2008
