Lies, Spin and Statistics

This morning finds me growling with frustration. No, this time it isn't Robbie's fault, it is Network Rail. The early morning news informed me that Network Rail have made a profit for the first time, maybe they have but it wasn't that bit that wound me up, it was the media spin that they put out. It was the claim that 9 out of 10 trains run on time. Don’t they realise that I am lied to by experts on a daily basis; I have a husband and three children! Not to mention years of double speak and deception from this government. I recognise a lie when I meet one. You can make statistics say almost anything. I seem to remember a quotation in my school maths textbook; it said ‘Statistics are like a lamp post to a drunken man, more a means of support than illumination’.

If 9 out of 10 trains run on time, and I have my doubts about that, we need the bigger picture about how that is achieved. What about the two occasions last week when Robbie’s train from Birmingham New Street actually started from Birmingham International? Yes, it may have arrived on time, but the bulk of its passengers were still standing on the platform at New Street. Or the morning last week when Robbie’s train to Birmingham was still waiting at Northampton full of passengers when the next train to Birmingham left. Nobody bothered to tell the passengers! They may be meeting targets by some contorted means, but they are certainly not giving any thought to the passengers. Customer Service – they haven’t got a clue!

Some bigwig from Network Rail was on Radio 4 spouting fourth about using road tolls to get people of the road and on to the trains. What trains? Surely not the trains that are already full and standing? Ones that start from the wrong station perhaps, or the ones that are working to a leaf fall timetable and mess up all the connections, or perhaps it is the trains that have mysteriously morphed into cramped smelly coaches because of engineering possession blocking the line. It is certainly those prohibitively expensive trains that a Machiavellian pricing policy. I can drive my whole family to Cornwall for less than the cost of one adult rail fare, even if I could afford it the railway can’t take me to where I want to go, Dr Beeching made certain of that! I like travelling by train and I would do it more often if some simple problems were remedied. I don’t want to pay a fortune just to stand for the whole journey, I want somewhere to leave my luggage and I don’t want to spend hours marooned at God forsaken stations like Birmingham New Street. Most of all I don’t want to be caught up in the dreaded New Street marathon, when late and badly publicised platform changes leave stressed passengers, weighed down with luggage, rushing up and down stairs to reach their train. Even on a good day a visit to New Street is a joyless experience. It is all well and good for Network Rail to come up with these suggestions, but it is about time that the public were treated to a bit of honesty and a lot more joined up thinking.

Poor old Robbie rang me on his way into work and got a ten minute tirade on the subject of Network Rail. It is one of the few occasions that I have known him to be almost speechless.