Thanks to the closure of the UK airspace to commercial flights and a similar situation throughout large most of Europe there is suddenly a huge demand for Ferry crossing across the Channel. Many of these services have been cut back as the competition from air travel and the Channel Tunnel has reduced the demand for these services.
For years now we have been hearing how everything should be super efficient, how we should cut waste and surplus capacity and run services in the most efficient way. Obviously, it makes sense to avoid any unnecessary waste of time, money and effort but I have always questioned whether it is true that a 100 efficient system has no spare capacity.
A perfect system is one that always works and copes with any problems that occur. Running a perfect system means that whatever happens the system always achieves its aims and purpose.
It is unlikely that even if the competition had not reduced capacity on ferries that there would have been sufficient to easily deal with the problems of bringing so many stranded travelers home to the UK but there would have been more capacity and more bookings available.
Obviously you cannot run empty ships just in case an unprecedented situation such as the complete closure of UK airspace were to take place but it seems reasonable to think that whichever government is in power would be ensuring that there were plans in place to cope with natural disasters and unprecedented events.
We have relied on ‘the market’ to decide what travel facilities are available and as we know from the financial crisis, the market, on it’s own, does not work to the benefit of the population at large it works to benefit those who work within it.
Efficiency reduces flexibility. A 100% efficient ferry service would not have any spare capacity at all and nobody would be getting home right now. We have previously seen the channel tunnel capacity reduced through weather problems last winter and a fire a year or two ago. We need to have some flexibility in travel options. We may not all use ferries often but we do need some way to allow them to successfully operate so the option exists when we need it.
The government have been keen to promote air travel and additional runways are still on the cards for both Heathrow and Stansted but I cannot recall anything at all being said about ports and ferries. Maybe I missed it but I suspect not.
The arguments about efficiency also apply to government, particularly at this time with an election soon and the various parties talking about significant cuts to publics services and the civil service.
Yes we need to save a lot of money but exactly what will be the cost in terms of peoples lives severely damaged through the loss of jobs and income. How well will the country be able to cope in the next natural disaster that brings chaos to the country when we have decimated the various services that we might require.
It’s all very well saying that frontline services will be preserved and it will be cuts in support services and backroom staff but how do you keep fire engines on the road if you reduce the vehicle maintenance support staff. How do schools manage to run well if their support staff is reduced and teachers have to do more of the support staff jobs.
There are no simple answers and there is no doubt there are lots of ways savings can be made which will have less impact on the front line services politicians are so quick to claim they support but make no mistake, these coming cuts will reduce flexibility and make us as a country even less able to cope with unexpected problems than we can now.
In recent years we have had several significant natural disaster scenarios occur. The events may not be comparable to the earthquakes and Tsunamis other countries have to cope with but floods and severe winter weather we have experienced have stretched local and national services to their limits. It might appear to make financial sense not to have any reserve capacity for anything at all and hope for the best but it is sensible, and surely the duty of government, to ensure we have the flexibility to cope with unexpected events when they do occur.
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