Britain:
No more privatisations

by Daphne Liddle

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott acted quickly to strip Railtrack of its 
responsibility for safety on the railways in the wake of the horrendous 
rail crash at Paddington — there is too much conflict of interest between 
making profits and ensuring safety.

But once it was finally disclosed that the death toll was under 40 and not 
as high as had been feared, the proposed privatisations of the air traffic 
control system (National Air Traffic Services or NATS) and parts of the 
London Underground system were back on schedule.

Air traffic control unions and the pilots' union BALPA are campaigning 
determinedly against the sell off, giving public safety as the main danger 
if the service were privatised.

Meanwhile both the main rail unions, the RMT and the drivers' union ASLEF 
are planning to ballot for national strike action if proper safety 
improvements are not announced within a few days.

This means the fitting of the computerised Automatic Train Protection (ATP) 
system which actually stops a train when it goes through a red light. ATP 
is used throughout Europe.

It was recommended at the inquiry into the Clapham rail disaster but later 
shelved by the then Tory government because it was too expensive (L700 
million) in the run-up to privatisation. Since privatisation, when the 
former British Rail was broken up and sold off at knock-down prices, a 
minority of investors have made fortunes. Yet the repeated calls for ATP 
have been ignored because it is "expensive".

The Blair Government is claiming it will now cost Ll billion and take ten 
years to fit. The unions say it will only take four years to fit — the 
Government's ten years is based on allowing the rail companies to make 
enough profit each year in the mean time.

Others have pointed out that if the Government treated this with the 
urgency it gave to bombing Yugoslavia, it could be done within a year.

The report of the preliminary investigation into the causes of the crash 
says the local Thames train crossed a red light into the path of the 
oncoming Great Western express. ATP would have prevented this by stopping 
the Thames train as soon as it passed the red light.

The light in question had been reported many times for its lack of 
visibility. Dozens of other similar lights have been reported throughout 
the country where there are visibility problems and which have been passed 
while at red on a number of occasions.

ASLEF has instructed all its members in future to drive very slowly past 
all of these lights.

Another factor that could be involved came to light when drivers reported 
the pressures that are on them to work long hours without proper breaks in 
order for the train companies to keep to their schedules.

The companies face fines if too many trains are late or cancelled. Yet one 
of their first acts after privatisation was to sack large numbers of train 
crews to cut costs, throwing a heavy burden on those left.

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New Worker

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