Not at all, just keep the current stock running reliably. Yes I know fitters have gone over to Hitachi causing a backlog but I say again, this is a private company making money out of this franchise so need to come up with the solution.
Why do people want to keep making excuses for a privately owned profit making company?
Because some people have "gone native" and are naive enough to sit up & beg at a few crumbs chucked down from the Corporate table believing that constitutes influence and don't realise that in reality they're being used as a free advocacy service. They are well meaning folks I am sure, but to be honest anyone who goes into bat on behalf of
GWR▸ has either got a screw loose, is on the payroll and/or counting on something in their Xmas stocking from the invisible man aka Hopwood.
<irony> And of course British Rail was perfect and Network Rail and
DfT» have nothing to do with GWR's problems.</irony>
Actually I quite favour the idea of a nationalised operator - provided they are allowed the freedom from political interference to get on with the job. Am I to be thought of as 'bought' merely because I suggest that there might be another side to the to the picture painted by Taplow Green?
Those who let contracts are just as responsible for the result as those who take them. The contract sets the rules the contractor merely plays by them. Get your sums wrong or the economic climate changes and a slim profit margin can soon turn into a massive loss - as Stagecoach/Virgin have found out on the East Coast. DfT's behaviour says you have to promise to pay them lots of money or you don't get the contract, but they do not seem to bother about customer service. So money becomes the main driver. That's not First Groups rules or StageCoaches - its DfT's.
