BBC News report today that the Conservative MEP Nirj Deva has said that the Chief Executive of Eurostar should step down.
From an engineering perspective, the problems with the trains are totally understandable – the electric trains are running very cold in the outdoors where temperatures are below zero, and condensation forms inside the engine when it enters the tunnel, which is about 25oc
In short, just as cars or buses can have problems in cold and harsh weather, trains are not infallible by any means. Even steam trains were known to have problems in such extreme weather.
The BBC reported that Mr Deva said the firm’s management are “out of touch”.
“I therefore call on Richard Brown to admit that his company was not adequately prepared to deal with the situation, and to do the decent thing and resign.”
Nirj Deva MEP
It’s not related to the new ‘High Speed’ line, though trains had problems ith one particular incline, most breakdowns are in the tunnels themselves. It’s a purely technical problem, and not something a Chief Executive would probably even think about. There are much more technically minded people, who will have tested the trains in a range of weather conditions, who are baffled by what has happened.
To the Eurosceptic, this could be another example of Europe meddling.
To the sceptic, this is another opportunity for the Tories to grab headlines at the totally galling time over the wrong part of the issue, in a totally insensitive way. Some of us are showing some compassion here, and are thinking about how a problem can be fixed, and all these stranded people need to get home or to their Christmas.
Or is it more meddling from a party thinking they are in Government already? We’ll have to wait for PMQ’s in the New Year to find out, I suppose. I’m sure Cameron will try to pin it on Brown next…
And then there’s political bias. London came to a complete standstill less than a year ago. Not much public transport was running for a whole day, millions of Londoners couldn’t get from A to B for the day on 2nd February 2009. It was good to see that the Palace of Westminster took a standard British attitude and carried on as normal.
Then, two months to the day, the Mayor of London walked out of Commons questions on the snow, calling the questions ‘pathetic’.
Will Mr Deva now belatedly call on the resignation of Boris Johnson, because surely his reactions as the top man in London to the little flurry of snow we experienced show that he’s totally “out of touch” too?
Whatever you do, do it effectively. Don’t criticise others if people in your own back yard are just as incompetent.
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