Poll: The 2008 Fare Strike

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Having read through the responses to this survey, perhaps I could offer my thoughts on some of the points raised?

- I voted 3: I think the 'strike' was a success, in the sense that it highlighted the problems;

- it was never a question of 'FGW^▸ (First Great Western) losing their franchise', far less the complete re-nationalisation of the railways: that's a complete non-starter;

- MTLS^▸ (More Train Less Strain) themselves were careful to avoid being seen to be encouraging fare-dodging: they just wanted a good headline - 'Fare Strike!', not 'MTLS get lots of people to break the law';

- the 'strike' did get lots of publicity, particularly in the Bristol / Bath area, where there are lots of voters / MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament);

- the publicity generated by the 'strike' does put a lot of political pressure on Andrew Haines to explain himself / FGW to politicians, who will want to be seen to be 'doing something', and who will demand that FGW in turn actually do something to improve the situation, where it is within their control to do so;

- to vacman - I'm sorry to hear that you or any of your colleagues were verbally abused or assaulted during the 'strike'. When I arrived at Bristol Temple Meads on that Monday morning (some time after the scrum that John R mentioned above), I saw four uniformed BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) officers, standing in a semi-cordon beyond the barriers, ready to deal with any such incidents. It is regrettable if this support was not made available to other front line FGW staff elsewhere. I am on record in other posts on this forum as holding a strong view that abuse or assault on any front line FGW staff is well out of order.

[Btline]

So far it is pretty even even.

I am also very sorry that members of staff were assaulted.

That's not on.

Keep voting!