Grumpy, snowy Europe
by
Marcel Van Silfhout |
Railways are at the receiving end of public and MPs’ criticism
It’s one of the funny aspects of the continent. Everyone knows: Europe has four seasons. But when the first snow arrives, mostly in December, people always seem to have forgotten there is such a nasty thing called wintertime. Also, everybody knows, when it snows, our roads, airfields and railways will face the risk of becoming a total mess. But year after year, it’s the same story that runs across the front pages of our newspapers: Snow causes chaos, accompanied by pictures of cars in traffic jams and train and air passengers desperately waiting in overcrowded departure halls.
And, of course, there is always an angriness of failing governments. No one seems to ask: What’s new? Haven’t I heard these grumpy sorts of complaints before?
Now, musing on snowy Holland, there are more bizarre aspects to recall. In the Dutch parliament it’s possible to hear MPs saying, “let’s abolish the state-company Prorail,” while these same MPs had decided to organise the railway system at one time.
Back then, in the roaring nineties when laissez faire and neo-liberalism entered the Dutch politics, it was fashionable to privatise all kinds of state-owned companies. Although economists had warned that to privatise the Dutch railways was an utterly stupid idea, it was more or less decided to strip the company into several parts in order to prepare a public offering on the stock exchange.
Of course, such an option is out of question because railways can only be run on budgetary neutrality. Profit and railways just don’t match. A railway system costs a company more money than it delivers. It’s good to have something that benefits society and in the case of railways it will mean fewer problems on main roads and accidents.
The Dutch railways, however, were torn apart into a state-owned entity and an independent one, although everyone knows it doesn’t work like this. We’re losing on the concept of synergy. Nevertheless, these sorts of devastating visionless politics have never been evaluated in Holland.
And again — although problems are far less than last year – Prorail and the Dutch independent semi-state public railway company Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) are once blamed for all the current problems, thanks to snowfall. Not a word is ever mentioned about the 13 billion euro that had been invested in the nineties in prestige but dysfunctional railways like the so-called ‘Betuweline’ which carries goods into Germany, but without being connected to any rail tracks after the border and the ‘High Speed Alliance” which is almost empty because it’s too expensive for ordinary people to use. All these billions could have been invested in the regular Dutch railways. But the politicians didn’t, and yet, they make a big fuss about failures in the present system which they implemented themselves.
Now, let’s go into the intriguing facts. Or to put it more precisely, let’s try to fine-tune the reality and give an answer to the question, is it really that bad with the railways in The Netherlands?
After Japan and Switzerland, the Dutch railway system is the most used one in the world. Still, the 87 per cent ‘punctuality’ – a figure to state how many trains arrive in time – is only beaten by the punctuality of Swiss and Japanese railways. In Germany, Belgium and England the mess due to snowfall was worse. In France too, but that had more to do with strikes. Actually, last year, when there was extreme coldness and snowfall, it was indeed a chaos of massive proportions in Holland. Almost all the trains had stood still for three days. But this year trains were only out of order for a few hours in the midst of a weekend. One week earlier there were no problems at all on the tracks, while the Dutch highways reached an all-time record of a traffic jam of about 900 kilometres, not to mention the awful situation at other airports and railways in Europe.
Perhaps all the grumpy angriness is just a way to express the Europe-wide chagrin during this cold and dark wintertime full of bad tidings. Perhaps one might say, “now and then we all need to blow off some steam and be angry at something nearby.” The railways are an ideal national doormat for such sentiments. But it’s unacceptable when Dutch politicians also start playing this childish, foolish game.
Last weekend, president-director of Prorail Bert Klerks was clear about the Dutch technical problems that are yet to be resolved. In Japan, the number of switches is far less than in Holland. In Tokyo, for example, only 28 switches are used for about 20 times for more trains than those in the small Dutch town of Utrecht that has 280 switches! And switches, as we learned, are vulnerable to all kind of disturbances and severe weather conditions. Klerks said: “I’m going to cut the number of switches back.” That’s the spirit. Such a man doesn’t need to be criticised. He just needs all our support, including the help and respect from politicians.
(Marcel van Silfhout is an investigative reporter working for public Dutch Television)
Oman Tribune |
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