Editor's Comment - May 2009

May 12th 2009

Happily many people from other industries read RailStaff and apparently enjoy it. Thanks and welcome to our May spring optimism edition.

What is the appeal of railways? Perhaps it is that everyone has travelled by train sometime or other and met the guard and the ticket clerk and even waved at the driver.

Undoubtedly it is a tactile industry where we see our people walking up the carriage, checking tickets, serving coffee or getting into the driving cab. No waiting on a phone punching five for other options.

This industry is peculiar in the level of contact between punter and provider. Perhaps that's why people from banks and broadcasting, defence and dairies are cheered by our experiences. Railways in Britain now prove you can over come near death by politics, adverse publicity and the growing competition of a whole industry professionally devoted to the internal combustion engine.

This is an industry that holds its people close, not at arms length. It's a much closer relationship than sliding a thin piece of plastic into a wall or absently spreading the butter on your morning toast.

People on railways take place in a thousand dramas a day. Moreover, this is an industry that believes in happy endings. Railway travel is therapeutic. Perhaps that explains the appeal. Truth is it is deeper than that. No matter how intractable a problem seems take a train ride up the main line. Movement makes the world seem a better place as it slips by outside.

Railways make no judgement, they simply move you forward. The French have a saying, 'it is better to travel than to arrive.'  Travel is eternal, we have to move to live. The basics of over coming a problem lie in taking action - even if it is only movement. The rhythmic roll and gallop of a railway journey presages victory and a workable outcome. Believe in it.

All industries in Britain face challenges brought on by material greed, debt default and a world that has yet to understand the value of freedom, democracy and the right to trade unfettered.

Keep reading RailStaff, we value your support and kind words. What ever you and your industry face, be assured you can win through just as the rail industry demonstrates.

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