Behind the Crumbling Edge

Stephen Poole joined British Rail in the early 1970s and worked on the railway in a variety of capacities for 20 years. This gave him an insight not only into the internal complexities of the nationalised railway in its last two decades, but also into the context in which it operated in terms of social, industrial, financial and political change. In spite of occasional rivalries, there was a shared sense of purpose and a camaraderie amongst railway workers and the author was clearly proud to be numbered amongst them. However, there was little room for such sentiments in the eventual helter-skelter run up to privatisation. The author portrays the reality of working for an industry struggling to survive and to adapt itself during a time of great upheaval, showing too how political expediency and dogma encroached upon the real work of running a railway - and resulted in the frustrations experienced by railway workers, passengers and freight users alike. Behind the Crumbling Edge...puts paid to any notion that there is a simple or lasting remedy for the railway industry's problems and demonstrates that the railway deserves better than to be treated as just another commodity in the national supermarket.