On Tuesday at the First Great Western public meeting I raised concerns about the sustainability of future improvements to our rail services in Reading.
I was concerned that most of the PowerPoint slides on some of the dramatic improvements to train services in Reading we are told we can expect over the the next few years in the presentation by the FGW boss contained a number of very big price tags.
In my mind was the current dire state of the public finances, escalating national debt etc thanks to ongoing failure to manage the economy by Brown and Darling.
I was also thinking in particular about the news I reported earlier this week that the Labour government is planning on raiding Whitehall budgets to pay for new affordable housing and other goodies ahead of the next election - at the expense of departments which include the Department for Transport.
But then all we are getting at the moment is more election bribes from Labour, in the absence of a vision for public services.
Anyway, inevitably perhaps,the day after the meeting, The Guardian splashed a story on it's front page about threats looming for transport budgets which could threaten the delivery of a number of major transport infrastructure projects, including a number of rail projects.
Clearly this could have a impact on the much-vaunted plans to redevelop Reading Station which is set to cost £884 million pounds.
The Labour Lead Member for Transport, Cllr Tony Page, did not attend the public meeting so I was unable to find out his views on how Reading might be affected.
One of the Conservative councillors, the Party's transport spokesman, who attended the meeting highlighted the above article on his Blog.
I was faintly surprised as I never had him down as a Guardian reader, but there you go.
I don't recall him or any of his colleagues raising any particular concerns about future transport funding during the FGW meeting.
My Lib Dem colleague Cllr RIcky Duveen in the meeting complained about inflation-busting fares increases which are continuing to be be foisted on Reading's travelling public by FGW.
It's doubly unfortunate that this has been occurring at the same time - as one of the members of the public noted at the meeting - as Network Rail bosses are enjoying bonuses.
And the news about transport funding continues to get worse.
According to an article that appeared in yesterday's Guardian it is likely that once again passengers will be forced to foot the bill for rail service improvements. And worse still, all taxpayers will be forced to stump up to meet the massive funding shortfall:
"Under the terms of so-called "cap and collar" arrangements that kick in about four years into major rail contracts, the Department for Transport (DfT) is obliged to cover the majority of any serious shortfall in revenues. Britain's third most costly rail contract, the £1.1bn First Great Western (FGW) franchise, received £50m last year from those provisions. The franchise, which runs trains to the south-west, is now receiving maximum revenue support, alongside its sister franchise First Capital Connect (FCC), which is also owned by FirstGroup.
However, the payment of the highest possible subsidies under cap and collar arrangements indicates a serious shortfall in revenue targets as the recession bites. In the most pessimistic scenario, the government covers 80% of any shortfall that is greater than 6% – the situation that FGW and FCC now find themselves in."
I met a number of regular commuters,friends, for a drink yesterday. Talking to them about their experiences they are worn down by commuting on services that don't offer good value for money and deeply sceptical about promises of better services.
We all want to believe that services will get better and that what we are promised will be delivered.
However, the platitudes we hear from officers of the rail companies and others that 'it will be so much better travelling by train in ten years time' don't wash with the people I was talking to or indeed many of the people who use the services every day.
I hope that the government and First Great Western can get themselves out of this mess they have got themselves into financially, and that Reading's travelling public and taxpayers are not called on to bail them out yet again.
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