Ministers think trains are just too much bother. That's why they are so relaxed about the strikes - Simon Jenkins [The Guardian]
Date: 12/12/2022
As fewer and fewer people use them, it seems railways are regarded as no longer essential especially in the north. Of all Britain's looming strikes, ministers seem least worried by the trains. When last week the Treasury and the transport secretary, Mark Harper, reportedly stopped the rail companies from upping their pay offer to the unions, they would have known the strike was on. They would have known that demanding new work practices alongside a fall in real-terms pay was never going to work. The pandemic devastated the railways, despite the government strangely paying to keep them running throughout. Taxpayers spent £16bn and goodness knows how much carbon transporting air round Britain.
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As fewer and fewer people use them, it seems railways are regarded as no longer essential, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins
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