End of the line for railway greed

I might be alone here, but there is something which always amuses me when big companies start complaining.

And what is even more amusing is when they try to use the law to protect their large profits.

Last week, GNER, the firm which has had the monopoly for many destinations from London on the East Coast Mainline lost its High Court appeal to try and stop a rival get up and going.

A firm, Grand Central plans to run three - yes that's just THREE - trains a day from Sunderland to London, calling at five stations en-route. Four stations, including Sunderland, currently

Grand Central will compete with GNER at just three stations, and possibly one more when another service, from Bradford to London, comes along.

What has got under GNER's skin, by all accounts, is that whereas it has paid a £1.3bnpremiumn for the right to run services to all East Coast stations, Grand Central will only have to pay to get access to the track for its six services a day.

To quote the new story which accompanied the High Court decision last week: "GNER claims the rival service will see it lose £109 million over the next nine years, because Grand Central will have the right to some of its fare revenue, while paying only a fraction of its charges to use the line."

It had claimed, in court, that such a situation was 'discriminatory and unlawful.' It has since started making veiled threats about increasing fares and reducing on-board facilities as a result.

This is the same GNER, by the way, which gratefully took subsidies of up to £61million in the years following privatisation, and only in recent years has it been paying government for the right to run the service.

Now, I'm not a businessman, but what I do understand of commerce tells me this: A private firm like GNER would not be offering the Government £1.3billion for the right to run services on the East Coast if it didn't think it could make a handsome profit in return.

And what's more, the 'threat' of rival starting up on a set route, at set times, shouldn't come as a shock to them.
Hull Trains has been doing exactly the same further down the East Coast line, stopping at Doncaster and Grantham to compete with GNER.

Hull Trains's services have been so successful they've recently got permission to increase their daily services to London by one a day, to six.

But why is GNER so worried? Having used York railway station more times than I care to remember, it's quite clear to me. GNER trains are regularly full at peak times and getting on at York can be a nightmare.

And whereas as when travelling by Virgin on the West Coast, there are still plenty of cheaper fares, I've often felt I'm paying through the nose just for the privilege of travelling aboard GNER.

Reliability, in my experience, is another issued with GNER. Check the arrivals boards at Newcastle or York on any day and you'll see what I mean.

So with a new company further up the line, GNER now has to face up to a commercial reality of privatisation:
competition.

It's something which needs to be rolled out across the rail industry. At present, it isn't privatised, it is franchised. And because the train companies know the travelling public have no choice but to use their services, they do their best to get away with the cheapest possible service going - and I don't mean by that the cheapest ticket either.

Anyone who has been stuck on one of the old Northern Pacer trains which rumble around the North will tell you that.

Anyway, the average man or woman living in York can choose their gas supplier (privatised), their electricity supplier (privatised) and their phone company (privatised).

So why, on the trains (apparently privatised), is the main operator so surprised to have to compete. It's warning fares will have to go UP now.

If that's the case, then expect the local Metro service between Newcastle and Sunderland to become much busier. Travellers are daft. If a cheaper service is 10 minutes on the train at another station, they will travel.

And that's what scares GNER. Having paid through the nose to print money up and down the east coast, it's suddenly discovered the goal posts have moved, that something else has cropped up to make their day a little harder. It's monetarytary answer to leaves on the line. And it's nice to see they know how that feels now!