Keep the Tyne & Wear Metro Public.

Last night I attended an open meeting of the Keep Metro Public (KMP) and it was fascinating. I learned a lot about what was going on and how things were set up at the moment and what was being proposed. Basically, at the moment the Metro is run by Nexus and has a "board" made up of twenty councilors drawn from the five Tyne & Wear Boroughs. This has worked very well for a long time but does not fit with our dear governments concepts so it has to be put out to tender. This has been done and there are four groups who are putting in bids. Three of them are private companies, all from abroad. The forth is the system as it stands now. They have to put in a bid up against the others and meet the criteria set by the government. Now the it would seem logical that if the present system is working efficiently then it should win the bid hands down, but that is not thinking as an economist who will only be interested in the bottom line.
One of the problems with this campaign is that it is heavily influenced by the Unions and the local Labour party and there seemed to be a bit of an idea that that is all you need. Of course the campaign needs to have a wide public base to succeed and so it is necessary to involve as wide a community base as possible. Indeed what it really needs is a healthy injection of Greenness, but then I would say that wouldn't I.
One of the things discussed was a rally in Newcastle which encompassed a wider brief of anti-privatisation than just the Metro. A provisional date for which is 18th. April with speakers from a wide range of organisations.
Before that on the 28th. March at 9 a.m. in the morning there is a lobby of the Passenger Transport Authority at Newcastle Civic Center. The is an opportunity for a bit of street theatre here. There was also talk about a Mayday rally and a stall at the Green Festival. Everything was healthy debated and at times I was surprised that a resolution of the discussion actually happened.
The last thing on the agenda was the date of the next Open Forum Meeting to which all are invited. The 7th. April 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Irish Center, Gallowgate, (Across from St. James Metro). Well worth a visit.