FCC certainly has “transformed” travel but not perhaps in the way that the marketing copywriters had intended.

Ms Grant was there with Neal Lawson, the new MD of FCC, to meet Norman Baker MP, the LibDem shadow transport secretary, and fellow LibDem MPs Tom Brake and Paul Burstow, both of whom represent constituencies “served” by FCC.  Also present was Bill Bradshaw, former Director of Strategy for British Rail and now LibDem transport spokesman in the House of Lords.  Norman had kindly asked me to join them, together with Nigel Quinton, my counterpart in Hitchin & Harpenden.

At least there were no New Labour crocodile tears.  But no tears at all really.  Some routine expressions of regret – “how we inconvenienced passengers was unacceptable” – but I had no sense that they truly understood just how horrible the last few months have been for local commuters.  As a met police detective said to me last night, “Ive never had such an awful time.”  We heard a lot of excuses and “force majeure” was dusted down rather a lot.

There was some explanation of what went wrong.  The new 377 class trains delivered late by Bombardier so that driver training had to be compressed, taking a lot of drivers away from their daily duties.  Lack of new trains meant the old trains had to stay in service and miss key modifications.  As a result more need to rely on goodwill from the remaining drivers in terms of rest day working.  Mix in an unpopular pay proposal.  Have the inevitable teething problems with new trains, add snow, stir well and wait for chaos.

I listed just some of the litany of complaints I have received, particularly the niggardliness and complexity of the compensation packages, and I compared it with the much more generous terms offered to travellers in Berlin who experienced a similar collapse in service.  I particularly criticised the Delay Repay scheme, echoing many comments made to me by St Albans travellers.

Ms Grant told us that they had already processed 73,000 delay repay schemes, with many more coming in.  When pressed, she conceded that they were being as flexible as possible.  Firstly the 30 minute delay is being measured against the original timetable and not the emergency one.  I am not sure this has been clearly communicated so I am communicating it now.  Secondly they are waiving all time limits for claims.  Thirdly they will not demand tickets or receipts as long as there is some evidence of travel, for example a credit card bill.  I report all this because it may allow people to bump up their own personal compensation, albeit through a tediously bureaucratic process.

I suspect it won’t help the occasional traveller even when they are regular users – I have had numbers of comments from people who travel into London off peak or no more than three times a week.  In both cases there is no need for them to have season tickets and they slip through the net.

I told her about inaudible announcements at West Hampstead, rude and offensive staff at St Pancras, and flakey text alerts.  I told her that FCC was deep in the mire and would have a long journey to recover any respect from its customers.  “God is in the detail” I said – they will have to be perfect in every aspect – clean toilets, clean stations and rolling stock, excellent timekeeping, good real time communication, full length trains, staff there when you want them.  It will be a long haul back, I’m not sure FCC gets it, in which case steps should be taken to remove the franchise.

PS I hope any reader using St Albans City Station comes along to Meet The Managers this coming Friday between 4.30 and 7 pm.  Mary Grant won’t be there, but Neal Lawson will – and so will Three Counties Radio.  It will be worth making your voice heard.

Both opinion polls and comment on the doorstep are showing the huge damage being done to the institutions of democracy by the whole ghastly story of misuse (and sometimes worse) of expenses by MPs.

Over the weekend I joined Lib Dem parliamentary candidates from around the UK in an open letter to the Speaker calling on him to address the issues without delay. He has to claim the moral high ground rather than continuing to defend the status quo.

Other Hertfordshire Lib Dem candidates to join me were Sal Brinton (Watford), Nigel Quinton (Hitchin & Harpenden) and Paul Zukowskyj (Welwyn Hatfield).

I continue to believe that politics is an honourable profession. MPs can make a real difference to the lives of their constituents. People have to have confidence in the wider democratic process. The longer this disaster takes to unfold, the more damage is being done to the British parliamentary democracy.
The full text of the letter is as follows:

Dear Mr Speaker,

As Parliament continues to be dragged down by the allowance system, and its rules, the role of those in public service across the country is being undermined.

We are Liberal Democrat candidates seeking to be elected to Parliament and yet we find ourselves disappointed, and frustrated, at the way in which this matter is being handled. Every day our residents are telling us loudly that this must stop and this must stop now.

Three things stand out:

• The resistance to the releasing of these documents and the attempt to exclude Parliament from the Freedom
of Information requirements

• The way in which Norman Baker and Kate Hoey were treated when they sought to raise legitimate concerns

• The fact that, through you, Parliament could now release the information into the public domain and cut short
this parade of drip-fed news and empower MPs and citizens through a new transparent relationship.

It is vital that Parliament must become transparent and accountable now. We call on you, as Speaker of the House, to do everything within your power to force the full publication of all expenses immediately. We also call on you to accept the independent review of MPs expenses and salaries chaired by Sir Christopher Kelly.

If you are unable to do this we then ask you to consider your position. Time is running out for politicians of all parties to repair the damage to our democracy.

Yours sincerely

Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat Candidate for St Albans
Nigel Quinton, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden
And 54 other Liberal Democrat candidates

The discussion was led by Nigel Quinton, Liberal Democrat candidate for Hitchin & Harpenden. Nigel is by training a geologist, and worked for more than 20 years in the oil industry, mostly at BP. He presented some sobering graphs and figures demonstrating the apparently inexorable rise in demand for oil against the brute reality that we are coming up against the production ceiling – and some fairly dodgy reserve figures particularly from OPEC where production quotas were pro-rated against boked reserves.The majority of remaining reserves are in countries not particularly noted for democracy or human rights. Oil shales and tar sands offer more reserves but only with huge amounts of energy and pollution to produce them.

The one carbon fuel which is in plentiful supply is coal, and conveniently the super-powers of the coming century – the US, China, Russia, India – have plenty of it. If they are confronted with producing dirty and high CO2-producing coal or seeing their economies grinding to a halt, it is not difficult to guess what they will decide to do, whatever the impact on global warming.

LibDem policy to achieve a zero-carbon society must be the way forward. But the lead-times for investing in new technologies are not short. At a time when there is so much other negative news, we must not lose sight of the urgency of dealing with this one. And do everything we can to conserve oil.

We will be continuing to hold policy discussions on key issues. The next one is on February 27th on the threats to Hertfordshire’s Green Belt. Do get in touch if you want more information.