The City buzz that German state owned Deutsche Bahn (DB) might bid for the Arriva transport group is the best news I have heard on the transport front for ages.
DB owns Chiltern Railways the most dynamic of the train operating companies. Quite apart from the excellent service it operates between London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill it has plans to open a new route between London and Oxford, as well as making a contribution to improving links in the south Midlands between Oxford and Milton Keynes.
If DB brings only a modicum of the dynamism it has shown with Chiltern Railways to the Arriva bus operation in Kent it will be good news for passengers. DB is interested in running trains through the Channel Tunnel in competition with Eurostar
Arriva owns the franchise for most of the rail services in Wales. It owns also the Cross-Country franchise which operates trains between Aberdeen and Penzance via Newcastle and Birmingham as well as the route between Bournemouth and Manchester. I bet DB would not put up with the nonsense that passengers from Ebbw Vale cannot get to Newport because Railtrack won't put a few points in to its system.
So, I welcome the bid. At a time when many local authorities are seeking improvements in public transport, but don't have the finance, DB has the financial muscle to make proposals for improvement happen.
Who knows, DB might one day own the Southern franchise and we may see Uckfield-Lewes re-open.
KENT COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: acerbic, carping, caustic, curmudgeonly,critical, cynical, grumpy, moaning, sardonic and plain speaking.
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