Unbelieveable!

I am so cross! When Robbie rang me to ask how I was, he had to endure s tirade of fury about Network Rail or to be more precise about Iain Coucher CEO of Network Rail. I had just read an interview with him in Personnel Today and it made my blood boil, I'm sure my blood pressure must be sky high.

http://www.personneltoday.com/articles/2009/03/23/49963/view-from-the-top-network-rail-ceo-iain-coucher.html

The article started off by acknowledging that Iain Coucher is used to being on the receiving end of criticism but Coucher asserts that he can take it. Interestingly no observation was made on how justified the criticism is, but if it was a play for sympathy from the reader it failed miserably. I suspect his astronomical salary helps him to put up with his hurt feelings.

The article plodded on rather predictably; considering the interview was personnel focussed I didn't think he was very complementary towards his workforce. Clearly he saw this as an opportunity to tell the world how wonderful he is, unfortunately for him I don't think most of 'the world' reads Personnel Today! Then I came to a paragraph that left me speechless, I couldn't quite believe what I had read and I had to read it again, in fact I read it several times, how could anyone make such arrogant assumptions? The paragraph in question began with Iain Coucher being asked about his staff .....
he says there are three distinct cultural groups within Network Rail: "There are 17,000 or so maintenance staff in orange jackets who tend to read The Sun; 9,000 signal box and control room staff wearing Network Rail fleeces and jeans, who may be Telegraph readers; and the professional services people who wear business attire and may get their opinions from The Times."

How dare he make such assumptions about his staff! Even the interviewer used the term 'simplistic pigeon-holing', but Iain Coucher claimed it helped him to communicate with his staff. Unbelievably it gets worse, he went on.....
“I like to make sure we angle our recruitment campaigns for each of the three groups towards their interests, and I not only try and dress like them if we're going to meet up, but I read each of their newspapers, as well as the FT, every day."

I think that shows astounding arrogance, but I guess it explains a lot, if Network Rail target the majority of their recruitment at Sun readers!!

The article rumbled from one exaggeration to the next. When asked about his greatest achievement at Network Rail he cited bringing track maintenance in house. Surely that was forced upon him by the numerous episodes of engineering overruns and the ensuing travel chaos!! To put it kindly he was making a virtue out of necessity.

He danced around the issue of his very large and increasing salary with the skill of a politician and his ability to spin the facts made Tony Blair look like an amateur!
"In the five years since we took over from Railtrack, we have achieved the highest ever punctuality record.......”
Really? It certainly doesn't feel like that and I suspect it doesn't feel like that to the TOC's either!

"We have pushed passenger satisfaction to an all-time high.......”
I am certainly not convinced by this statement, maybe the TOC'c have improved passenger satisfaction, but that would be in spite of rather than because of Network Rail! What about Network Rail's customers, the TOC's, the freight companies etc - I seem to remember some eloquent expressions of dissatisfaction from Virgin and I think the freight operators were unhappy too.

Having stretched my credulity to the limit, he managed to save the best until last. Under the heading 'minorities' he said
"We try and recruit minorities at the same rate as they apply, so if 10% of applicants are women, we try and convert that same proportion into job offers.....”

Women are NOT a minority!! They may be under represented in the rail industry, but there are some very able women in the industry and with a little effort there could be more. Network Rail should be doing more to encourage women to apply for employment. Women have many strengths including built in 'lie detectors', maybe Network Rail should employ a lot more women – to help them think up more believable excuses!

An Attempt to Justify the Unjustifiable 29.11.07

The rail industry hit the headlines again today for all the wrong reasons. The latest fare increases were announced, and as expected they have increased significantly more than the rate of inflation. Some fares are capped by the government and they will rise by inflation plus 1% but the rest will increase by anything up to 11%. It seemed that every time I turned on the radio or TV a different selection of railway bods were squirming and stuttering in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable! I know the Prime Minister has been doing a whole lot of squirming for different reasons this week, but I think somebody ought to be asking him some probing questions about this too because it has his government's mucky fingerprints all over it. The government wants more trains, more carriages and more people to travel by public transport, great, but what are they doing about it? They are promising a 7% increase in the number of trains, but there is a 40% increase in the number of passengers! If they really believe all the stuff they spout about sustainable public transport and the need to reduce our impact on the environment then they really must put their money where their mouth is! Correction, I mean our money, tax payers money (they just like to pretend it is their money!). To have a coherent public transport system they have to bite the bullet and tax motorists, airlines etc and invest in the railways and in bus services.

I know it is hard for the government to understand, but you can't change things by just talking about it, they actually have to do something to bring about change. I am just an ordinary person and I don't know anything about the railways, but I know when I am being conned and the present situation is little short of exploitation. Many commuters have no choice about the train service they use to get to work and some have no viable option except rail transport, but they are still customers and they are entitled to expect a basic level of service which includes decent station facilities, accurate information, punctuality and a seat! I was amazed to discover that there is usually no penalty for trains being overcrowded and this is not included in the performance criteria of the train operating companies. It is ridiculous to expect rail passengers to pay extortionate fares, because many can and do vote with their feet. I enjoy visiting family in Devon and Cornwall and it is nice to travel by train rather than taking the car but the snag is that once we get there the public transport connections are almost non existent and the return rail fare would cost £548 for me, Robbie, Emily, Laura and Sam! If I drive I add a few miles to the car and I can get up to 7 people there and back on a tank of diesel (about £65). Until this ridiculous situation changes people like me will not use the railways!