On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 01:06:02 -0700, John B wrote:

On 5 Sep, 23:28, Jim Gemineye wrote:
Bob Crow wants the underground, railways and buses back in public
ownership.
I couldn't agree more, because I'm a Eurosceptic, but does Bob Crow
realise that if we nationalise our transport system we will be in
breach of the EU policy of economic liberalisation (as they put it).
That is foriegn companies won't be able to buy into our economy -
further integrating our own economy into the EU and effectively
exporting our own services to us!

That is utter rubbish. There is no EU obligation or compulsion for
public transport to be in private ownership (slowly slowly or
otherwise).

The only thing I can think of which is even vaguely relevant is the
obligation for national rail operators to account for track and train
operations separately (note: not the same thing as operating them
separately), in order to allow fair pricing for international rail
flows.

There are long standing but not yet agreed proposals (AFAIK) to require
competitive tendering of all public transport operations. TfL and RATP
have strongly objected to this - particularly in the context of their
metro / tube operations. TfL obviously tender out their bus operations
on a route contract basis and not every bus route in the Greater Paris
area is publicly operated (AIUI).

I think the proposals were for relatively short contract terms such as 5
years or so which would make life very difficult indeed for urban rail
operations / planning / investment - as we know to our cost with our NR
network.

I really have no idea at all what BC's view of Europe is - he just wants
public ownership for political and power base reasons.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!