On To Bedfordshire
‘SLEEPER trains have never been more popular.
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| ‘Wake me up when we get to Oxford Street’ |
Every day thousands upon thousands of Britons choose to travel by a sleeper train as they go to work. See them slumber aboard the 6:15 Reading to Newbury flyer.
Stifle a yawn as you cast an eye over the dozing travellers, hanging like bats from strap handles aboard the London Tube, a train barely moving between dimly lit tunnels.
But things may be about to change.
The Times says that plans are afoot to reduce the £6.5 billion annual railways subsidy – and the sleeper services are the first in line to go.
You see, sleepers dont make money. For instance, last year, the service from Paddington in London to Penzance in Cornwall lost £1 million.
And when you consider that a sleeper train carriage carries 100 people compared to the 500-2,000 that can be shoehorned onto a daytime intercity carriage, you can instantly see the problem.
Its clear to us that the way to save the sleeper, and make it less of a drain on taxpayers money, is to get more people on board.
So the sooner they are reclassified as mobile starter homes for migrant workers, the better…’
Posted: 9th, June 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
