Rail Users Ireland Forum - View Single Post - Galway <---> Limerick: The slowest train in Europe?

Alan French · 26-08-2010, 20:01

Colm Moore is right – the service could break even, provided that we define breaking even as making a net contribution to the system as a whole.

I said that my understanding of the transport market “has lots of implications” (#15). One of them is that the traditional profit/loss account for each line is wildly misleading. For a closure, the relevant figure is not what the line itself is losing, but the saving made to the whole system (and to the whole country) when all effects of the closure are allowed for. Staff redeployed elsewhere, for example, are not a saving. But most importantly, loss of revenue to connecting services is a real loss to the whole system. So the real saving will always be less than the losses shown in an itemised account.

So I am applying the reverse of this logic to re-openings. If the WRC, with an improved timetable and connections, will contribute to the rest of the network more than it loses on operating costs, then the entire argument about being a drain on taxpayers’ money collapses. It is possible, given a few years, that the line may be a net contributor. Then where will all this rhetoric about saving taxpayers’ money be?

Of course, the contribution to the rest of the network is difficult to estimate, and needs to be based on actual experience. But the traditional profit/loss account is not the “next best thing”: it is seriously wide of the mark. Quoting such figures in the media is misleading, and I would even call it fraudulent accounting.

So if you resent tax money going on the WRC, ask yourself this. Of all the dubious spending by Government, why pick on this line (which might yet make a net contribution), and not, for example, the motorway system? In particular, have the same people protested against the Limerick-Galway motorway as an extravagance? There is something strange in the way that railway projects attract more white-elephant type comments than almost any other area of public expenditure. This “presumption of extravagance” needs to be explored further.

Ronald Binge’s parody (#23) hits the nail on the head: it shows how differently people think about railways as against other public services.

26-08-2010, 20:01	#24
Alan French Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 89	Colm Moore is right – the service could break even, provided that we define breaking even as making a net contribution to the system as a whole. I said that my understanding of the transport market “has lots of implications” (#15). One of them is that the traditional profit/loss account for each line is wildly misleading. For a closure, the relevant figure is not what the line itself is losing, but the saving made to the whole system (and to the whole country) when all effects of the closure are allowed for. Staff redeployed elsewhere, for example, are not a saving. But most importantly, loss of revenue to connecting services is a real loss to the whole system. So the real saving will always be less than the losses shown in an itemised account. So I am applying the reverse of this logic to re-openings. If the WRC, with an improved timetable and connections, will contribute to the rest of the network more than it loses on operating costs, then the entire argument about being a drain on taxpayers’ money collapses. It is possible, given a few years, that the line may be a net contributor. Then where will all this rhetoric about saving taxpayers’ money be? Of course, the contribution to the rest of the network is difficult to estimate, and needs to be based on actual experience. But the traditional profit/loss account is not the “next best thing”: it is seriously wide of the mark. Quoting such figures in the media is misleading, and I would even call it fraudulent accounting. So if you resent tax money going on the WRC, ask yourself this. Of all the dubious spending by Government, why pick on this line (which might yet make a net contribution), and not, for example, the motorway system? In particular, have the same people protested against the Limerick-Galway motorway as an extravagance? There is something strange in the way that railway projects attract more white-elephant type comments than almost any other area of public expenditure. This “presumption of extravagance” needs to be explored further. Ronald Binge’s parody (#23) hits the nail on the head: it shows how differently people think about railways as against other public services.