Where on earth is this extra money going?
It's going into the well-lined pockets of the Northern Rail's franchise holders for the past ten years, Serco and Abellio. Serco, of course, is the notorious UK outsourcing company, which has an appalling history of failures, fraud, errors and overcharging. Abellio is owned by the Dutch state rail company, Nederlandse Spoorwagen, so the profits they make from overcharging us go into the pockets of the Dutch government and therefore, indirectly, into the pockets of Dutch taxpayers.
Northern Rail is the most highly subsidised railway company in the UK, and it must also be one of the worst - certainly if you judge it by the quality of its rolling stock.
To answer Golfball's question directly, yes, I think it is always worth writing to one's MP about this kind of issue. That said, there does at last seem to be a very belated recognition among our politicians that something needs to be done about the Class 142 trains. I even heard Nick Clegg say so on the radio the other day. There must be an election coming up .......
Astonishingly, considering the appalling quality of its service, the existing Northern Rail franchise was extended last year, until Feb 2016. Three companies have been shortlisted to bid for the new franchise: Arriva, Govia, and Abellio (but not Serco, of course). As Arriva is owned by Deutsche Bahn, there is therefore a two-to-one chance that our local rail services will be returned to public ownership. Foreign public ownership, that is!
