Wrexham and Shropshire: the best railway company in the UK?

[agricola]

'That is unfortunate, but meaningless'. Says it all. People's jobs. Shall they just go and get another one? And a snide anti-union remark. Bit of a cunt aren't you?

"A snide anti-union remark"? Are you supporting their claim that it was the RMT's Wrexham branch who played the key role in setting this service up, then? The RMT that cares so much about WSMR that Bob Crow initially thought it was a franchise that had gone bust. As for people's jobs, it is an unfortunate fact of life that businesses can and do go bust, often at very short notice. When that happens, the employees should get full compensation, help to find new employment, and as much help as they need. Aside from you (whose value should be clear to all), noone has claimed that this is not happening with WSMR employees.

The funding was given because WS wanted to run the service from Wrexham Gen. You can bang on all you like about it going to Network Rail but it doesn't fucking matter, it was provided on the basis of WS running the service for five more years, and primarily for the benefit of WS. Neither Arriva nor Virgin use Wrexham Gen for anything other than a stop. Only WS used Wrexham Gen as an operational centre, so it's now a fucking expensive white elephant. And 'give us public money or we take our ball home' is fucking blackmail.

Do you have any actual evidence of this? I mean, I can point to the WAG announcement showing the money was being given to NR for W+S and other operators, and nowhere in that announcement does it state that this was given in exchange for a period of five years service at Wrexham. The threat to move to Shrewsbury was just realism, since there were no facilities in Wrexham (as it was then) and there were in Shrewsbury. Or would you rather that the WAG had called their bluff and the jobs would have gone to Shrewsbury?

As for "a fucking expensive white elephant", the depot is basically the bay platforms at Wrexham General and a building on the station site, IIRC, hardly a white elephant, never mind an expensive one.

And yeah, I used them, they were decent. What the fuck does that have to do with anything? I quite like Sky Sports News but it doesn't make Murdoch a fucking saint does it?

No, but I would expect that - if you had used it - then you might have noticed that it was not especially heavily loaded a lot of the time.

 

[teuchter]

If PT's claim is true - that there was some kind of deal involving a promise that WSMR would provide a service for 5 years - then surely whoever signed the other side of this deal (the WAG??) will be after WSMR now for breach of contract. If there was a contract and no-one is chasing up on it, then I'd suggest PT go and kick them into action.

Also, the whole "blackmail" thing would rely on an assumption that WSMR saw some kind of big advantage in basing themselves at Wrexham rather than Shrewsbury. I'm wondering what PT thinks this was.

 

[teuchter]

'That is unfortunate, but meaningless'. Says it all. People's jobs. Shall they just go and get another one? And a snide anti-union remark. Bit of a cunt aren't you?

And this paragraph is just really crap, lazy and disingenuous.

 

[teuchter]

Photos from the last day, and some other (sad) stuff, here -

http://www.nwrail.org.uk/nwnews.htm

 

[editor]

Campaign update:
http://www.urban75.org/blog/wrexham-shropshire-railway-campaign-update/

 

[teuchter]

Perhaps the 7,300 petition signatories could invest in a new open access rail company and reinstate the link themselves.

 

[editor]

Perhaps the 7,300 petition signatories could invest in a new open access rail company and reinstate the link themselves.

Perhaps it's best to try and do something to gain publicity for the issue and to get people involved rather than sneer away on a bulletin board?

Just a thought, like.

 

[teuchter]

If that action group manage to get the service restored, then well done to them by the way. I genuinely wish them the best of luck.

.

 

[editor]

So you're covering yourself with a Dr Jekyll and Hyde approach: wish them well while sneering at their efforts later. Nice.

 

[teuchter]

I wish them well but fear their efforts are likely to come to nothing due to the way in which the W&S operation was funded and the way our railways are run. The point is, it was run in an effort to make it a subsidy-free service. It failed. Some are saying that it could have been profitable given time; if they believe that, then perhaps they could invest their own money in it and reap the rewards in a few years' time.

If the 7,300 people put in a grand each, that would cover two and a bit years of service running at a loss.

The history of the W&S operation doesn't really give the people of Wrexham much more of a case for arguing for a subsidised direct link to London than any other provincial town in the UK. So, I support them in trying to improve rail links just like I'd support any group anywhere in the country trying to improve rail links.

So, there is no contradiction, and no sneering either, just a couple of points about the reality of the situation. However, I know you prefer to concentrate on headlines rather than details, so it's not surprising that you should interpret my comment in the way you have.

 

[davesgcr]

If the HS2 is built , there would be no problem in pathing a decent Wrexham - Shrewsbury - Wolverhampton - Euston service , bad news is that this is potentially a very long way off.

I did ask a "local" railway person the other day , if any of the WSMR staff had got / transferred jobs to any other operators and the answer was quite depressing. I really feel for those people.

 

[editor]

I did ask a "local" railway person the other day , if any of the WSMR staff had got / transferred jobs to any other operators and the answer was quite depressing. I really feel for those people.

It's particularly sad because the staff were so lovely and all seemed to enjoy their jobs and working for the company.

 

[agricola]

brummies stole our train, and put an orchestra on it