The politicians should over-rule the planners and tell them to put the arch back up

Above: I bought this coloured print of the Euston Arch at a print shop in Kings Parade, Cambridge.

In April Network Rail, which owns almost all of the infrastructure of the rail system in the United Kingdom, announced that British Land would be responsible for rebuilding Euston Station, a bland and featureless rail terminus on the Euston Road. The current 1960s building replaced a Victorian complex that was not only important from the point of view of industrial arachaeology, but included structures by the classical architect Philip Hardwick, including a fine Boardroom and the world famous Euston Arch (actually a propylaeum). The destruction of the arch was extremely controversial, and ever since there have been calls to rebuild the arch, ignored by the modernist intellectual elite who dismiss the idea as architecturally revanchist (Network Rail say they are not in the business of building monuments).

More on the rebuilding: http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3084771



Above: in a recent article in The Guardian (you may have to click on the image to enlarge it so you can read it) Simon Jenkins persuasively argued that other major cities (specifically Moscow) have enhanced the built environment for their citizens by rebuilding structures destroyed in the past. From a PR point of view rebuilding the Euston Arch would generate enormous reserves of goodwill for Network Rail (which has a dreadful reputation among the public) as well as restoring the morale of the rail workforce, most of whom care deeply about the rail system. This is one of the few occasions when the politicians should over-rule the planners and tell them to put the arch back up.




Above: also in The Guardian was this front page lead article on how safety mistakes made by Railtrack (which used to own the railway infrastructure) still havn’t been corrected by Network Rail. The whole railway system used to be owned and run by the state through British Rail. This nationalised company was de-nationalised at the fag end of the Conservative government in the 1990s – an action that was very unpopular, and which did not have widespread support in the country. Instead of renationalising the railway system, the incoming Labour government left it to wither, with disasterous results. Having fallen between two stools (an incompetent outgoing government and a negligent incoming one) the rail network experienced a series of spectacular accidents in which many people lost their lives. John Major’s government was wrong to denationalise without popular support, but Tony Blair’s government was equally wrong not to try to make the privitisation work (I suppose they weren’t interested in someone else’s initiative).

And why has Gwyneth Dunwoody MP (Chairperson of the Select Committee on Transport) remained silent about Network Rail’s shortcomings? Normally she is popping up on the Today Programme, signing Early Day Motions, calling rail officials before her committee etc. Her silence seems weirdly uncharacteristic (especially as she was hyper-critical of Railtrack whenever they were at fault).

More on Gwyneth Dunwoody: http://www.gwynethdunwoody.co.uk/My%20work%20in%20Parliament.htm

PS I have to declare an interest – I have many personal connections with the old British Rail.