Sir, On Sunday, September 3, at Oxenholme Station, I witnessed one of the most crass acts to emerge from rail privitisation and how to perpetuate car dependency.
A Glasgow-bound train was reported as running nine minutes late, and just as the locomotive was in sight of No.2 platform the First North Western branch train for Windermere was literally pulling away from platform three.
Naturally, there were angry passengers from the main line train wanting connection for stations to Windermere, but why should the station staff at Oxenholme have to take the flack for incompetent management decisions which prevent the staff using their initiative to hold trains for connections?
A rail employee stated that in the days of British Railways he could have held the branch train for connection with delayed trains.
Now we have a lunatic system from which one can only conclude that the
network is run for the benefit of corporate image and not the humble passenger.
If we want to encourage people to use public transport instead of the private car it is imperative to have an integrated transport network which puts the passenger first.
It's time to bring the system back under one integrated roof!
Hugh Burrows
Kendal
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