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Whether it's South Korea or the US, the weakness of presidential systems is probably Julius Caesar's worst legacy.
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Then why didn't you just steal a march on him? Eh?
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while the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions called emergency meetings to discuss going on strike.
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first apart from the other 4 which are already run by the govt due to handing the keys back.
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Even Martial Law was better bitd.
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The problem is that people create a false dichotomy of strict nationalisation vs privatisation, with whatever is currently not working being magically solved by swapping to the opposite extreme, and the detractors of the extreme (quite rightly) claiming that there's no proof that the opposite extreme will be any better.
Both can work, if they have the right oversight/regulation, but this has been sadly lacking for many years.
National Rail worked until the complacency set in. The Tories saw it as ripe for privatisation as "competition and the markets will fix everything" only for the franchises to be bought up by profligate corporations that were free to cream off profits whilst being heavily subsidised and rarely, if ever, being held to account. (See also water companies like Thames Water.)
The hard part (whichever path you take) is getting the oversight/regulation right.
Socialism and capitalism are both equally hard if you've got shit people in charge of things.
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How is a monopoly good for capitalistic or socialist ideals?
There's not really much of an alternative you can do for rail travel. Splitting it up geographically just creates a bunch of separate isolated monopolies.
You can't have 5 different train companies running services between popular destinations (e.g. Guildford <-> Waterloo).
My point is that where monopolies are very hard to avoid is where you need proper oversight/regulation. Most Governments are weak in this respect and corporations often have better lawyers to work around whatever rules are in place.
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Cards on the table. I work in the rail industry. I've worked for NR and civils contractors. I work mainly on projects to improve/replace infrastructure, but have also worked in operations covering the major managed stations in South London (Vic, Waterloo, London Bridge, Charing Cross, Clapham Junction).
I joined Network Rail back in the early 2000s when I had just become NR (my contract came through on Railtrack headed paper). Railtrack was obviously a disaster. NR actually did some great things. If you look at performance improvements from say around 2002 to 2010, they actually made huge steps forward, but things have plateaued after that. I believe, for sure, that the nationalised nature of the infrastructure is essential.
I have seen the interfaces between the privatised TOCs and NR does work well at a local level. TOC station managers and NR Station managers all work very hard to try to make things work smoothly, but it's inefficient for a start having two different sets of station staff. You can also see how at a higher level that both sides are protecting their own interests and for the TOCs that means profit, sometimes to the detriment of performance/customer satisfaction.
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I watched this yesterday, and there's a few nuggets of insight about the various organisational forms over the years. It's from a left perspective, but the guy does at least remain somewhat neutral — he's just a total train nerd, and it's a nice watch.
(the title is a bit clickbait, though…)
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Are you still with Network Rail?
You can also see how at a higher level that both sides are protecting their own interests and for the TOCs that means profit, sometimes to the detriment of performance/customer satisfaction.
I had a couple of years in Management Consultancy - while deciding on next steps* - and recall presenting to NR, DfT and ORR on how flawed the TOC payment (pain/gain) mechanism was (is?)
I took a sample station, modelled its asset base, and pushed it through a Control Period using a quite simple Excel workbook. It showed that a TOC could let certain station assets go to ruin and still receive a payment rather than a penalty. Because of several flaws in the mechanism and franchise policy that I won't bore everyone with!
I thought the head of ORR - a formidable man at the time - was going to defenestrate someone.
*gone back to building the infrastructure now. I find it more rewarding and less chance of bumping into idiots who belong at KPMG.
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No, I left NR in 2021. I've actually worked for them on 3 occasions. First time in Engineering at head office. Then on projects and lastly in ops. I'm now working for a civils contractor on HS2...
When i worked on stations, it was for the NR managed stations, so NR was responsible for the maintenance of the assets, but the TOCs operated them.
The TOC payment thing has changed now (since COVID), as they are literally just paid to run a service i believe.
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people create a false dichotomy
On a more general note, it has been argued that the we've been held hostage in the last 3 - 5 decades to an an in fight between boomers. Still trying to settle debates they had in the student unions back in the 1960s. You are either FOR or AGAINST something.
You could argue that Blair, Obama,Cameron, Macron etc were centrist wimps, but at least we were looking at a genuine attempt to break out of the polarised mind sets of previous generations.
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I'm old Gregg....