National transport - Privatisation of no benefit to commuter

On the face of it, proposals

The Minister’s rationale in wanting to scrap CIE and replace it with three new independent companies to run the national rail, bus and Dublin transport services is predicated on an aspiration to encourage more competition. In tandem with that, is a commitment that private companies will be offered a franchise to run bus services throughout the country, which, in principle, is long overdue.

Unquestionably, CIE badly needs a major shake-up, but a number of caveats must be entered in relation to the direction in which the Minister intends to go.

The immediate suspicion is that Mr Brennan is ultimately heading towards the privatisation of the national transport system, although he has initially denied the possibility of that happening. Hopefully, he will not diverge from that commitment because the British model of privatisation in relation to the railways has proven to be a major disaster from the point of view of commuters. In fact, it would be folly on the part of the Government to go the route of privatisation and hand over to private enterprise the management of our national transport system.

It would certainly not be in the interests of commuters around the country who currently to a great extent depend on the State to provide a transport service, that obligation would be transferred to private companies whose sole consideration would be profit.

At this stage, Mr Brennan has stated that the radical plan he proposes will see the new independent companies stay within State ownership, and that the move is not the first step towards privatising public transport.

Radicalising the system is one thing, but the re-structuring the Minister has in mind cannot merely be a cosmetic exercise. It must result in a vastly improved service to commuters, otherwise the exercise will be futile.

By taking the current parent company out of the equation, he argues that much duplication and trade-off between trains and buses will be eliminated.

Last year CIE received 500 million in current and capital funding from the State. Mr Brennan seems to have enough faith in the proposed three new independent companies expanding their markets sufficiently to decrease the necessity for such large subsidies.

Yet, he insists that State will continue to subsidise public transport, which, in practical terms, is a fact of life. The State cannot abandon communities all over this country who depend on a service which, essentially, is uneconomical to provide.

Realistically, private bus companies will not be inclined to provide uneconomic services which are socially vital in rural areas.

That will always be an obligation of the State.

In promulgating his vision of a new transport system, Mr Brennan uses the analogy of the arrival of Ryanair into the market and the affect that had on airline prices, especially those of Aer Lingus. There is a large measure of truth in that assertion, but one would have to question the wisdom of a philosophy such as Ryanair’s intervening in our national transport system.

Later this week, Mr Brennan will outline his plans to the Public Transport Forum, a body comprised of representatives of unions, employers and the Government.

Hopefully, the forum and the minister, will address the rather dubious thinking which is in the air that some rail-lines could be taken out of service.

Such a move hardly fits in with aspirations to make the service more customer-friendly.