New ministers, old problems
Political events have moved so fast recently that the old test for memory loss of asking ‘who is the Prime Minister?’ can no longer be used. So I have not yet had a chance to welcome Chris Grayling as Secretary of State for Transport, along with his new team. Grayling, in fact, does have some experience, having been Shadow Transport Secretary in the mid-2000s when AlistairDarling was the man in charge.
Grayling flirted with a few ideas about an integrated railway and clearly had some criticisms of the existing system, but then moved elsewhere. He has had a somewhat chequered career, with his low point being the banning of allowing prisoners to receive books from outside because of security concerns, a measure that was immediately overturned by his successor Michael Gove.
Transport secretaries are always assessed by whether they are politicians on the way up or on the way down, and Grayling must feel that being appointed to transport suggests it is the latter, after a variety of ministerial jobs reckoned to be higher up the hierarchy.
However, despite being rather absent in the summer when much was happening - the Southern dispute, the Anglia franchise allocation, fares rise announcement and so on - he has a good opportunity to make his mark.
There is much to sort out, and here is his ‘starter for 10’. Simon Calder, the esteemed and veteran travel writer in my old parish,
The Independent, wrote recently how he was travelling on the 1730 from Euston to Glasgow on a summer Friday night and there were acres of empty seats. He had bought his First Class ticket 12 weeks in advance, but clearly there were not very many cheap seats available and therefore there was much of what Darling used to call ‘fresh air’ being transported.
This situation is clearly ridiculous and has being going on for ages. But tackling it will not be easy, because of the rigidities of contractual arrangements and the legacy of past practice.
But perhaps, just perhaps, Grayling may ask that with all that fresh air being transported, do we really need HS2, since he has shown himself in the past to be a bit of an iconoclast.