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What is a public sector worker? Are they all general public sector workers? Of course not, but it fits your narrative once again.
Surely if the public sector end up taking over, they'd then employ people fit for the roles required. Surely there's no difference there? You're not going to have Gary from housing suddenly driving a train or Maureen, the dinner lady, scheduling routes.
The truth is the Welsh Governement through Transport for Wales took all the big decisions anyway. The railways were run by a Civil Servant. Keolis Amey were really unhappy that Keolis Amey (Transport for Wales Rail) that they got the blame when things went wrong and the WG tried to take credit when (rarely) something positive happened. Most insiders belieive that Keolis Amey would have pulled out anyway at some point. To be truly effective they now need someone who is not a Civil Servant to run them.
Considering KeolisAmey only took over the franchise in late 2018 and the U.K. government only transferred the ownership of the core valley lines to WAG about 3 months ago, they haven’t exactly had much of an opportunity to make any major infrastructure improvements.
These are some of the improvements planned by 2023 (which has been always been the plan, no HS2 timescales)
https://tfwrail.wales/about-us/transport-for-wales
I am not coming at this from a TISS angle, god forbid. But Transport for Wales is run by a Civil Servant. if you look at WG scrutiny committees on Transport it was the Civil Servant who answered all the questions. Yet when the trains failed to run on time or when they breached Welsh Language guidelines TfW pointed the finger at TfW Rail Services ( Keolis Amey) and actually fined them. But they were always working with one arm tied behind their back. Privately KA regretted getting involved - except perhaps from the infrastructure side.
But my opinion does not come from an ideological perspective. It comes from understanding who is involved. There are some very innovative and commercially minded public servants out there. There are others who just know how to cover their arse. Just like anywhere else really!
But why would WAG build/invest in something they don’t own or gain any income from? Once they own the infrastructure and it’s devolved they can invest as it is their asset.
Westminster have taken 11 years to get shovels in the ground for HS2 while blowing the budget multiple times before they are even started.
It’s a U.K. way of doing things, slow, late and over budget. That’s why Europe is years ahead in infrastructure, not to mention Asia.