Israel Railways chairman-designate Ori Yogev, is a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who with other "Ministry of Finance boys" is a passionate promoter of privatization of the company, which will involve breaking it up.
Recently, in a tender for new rolling stock, Israel Railways demanded that the maintenance of the carriages for 15 years be given to the Canadian manufacturer. The company also outsourced its computer services and track and station planning and construction, and it now plans to privatize its cargo operations.
If our captains would only make a little effort, check Google, and read the economic newspapers from around the world, they would realize that most of the privatization promoters in the West long ago changed their minds. For example, the privatization of British Rail in the 1990s led to a series of accidents and disasters, including 48 deaths and 700 injuries over three years. Disasters, which were mainly caused by a lack of coordination between the trains' operating staff and the tracks' maintenance and infrastructure staff. As a result, the British government renationalized most rail services.
The privatization of Japan's railway maintenance also led to trouble. 107 people were killed and 550 injured in a train crash at Amagasaki in 2005. The report on the crash ruled that poor maintenance was responsible.
Six months ago, the International Transport Workers Federation presented the European Commission on rail transport with a list of lethal accidents throughout Europe since privatization began in the EU, and called for the nationalization of railway infrastructures and maintenance.
Railway maintenance cannot be managed based solely on the profit motive. Cost cutting and straining standards and regulations to the limit to make profits causes disasters and kills people. Regrettably, we are beginning to see this practice in Israel, when Israel Railways decided to ease the quality standards in the rolling stock tender.
If the Ministry of Finance's boys and Ori Yogev would look around, they will discover that almost all previous attempts at privatization have failed in Israel: the privatization of school nurses, the Wisconsin plan, the conduct of the Fire and Rescue Services on land and in the air, private prisons, and many more.
If the plan goes into effect, hundreds of skilled, professional, and loyal railway employees will be sent by the current government and Ministry of Finance to join the ranks of the unemployed, and will be replaced by Canadians or Thais with no obligations. Valuable know-how will be lost, and except for "increased productivity" and "savings", including on critical safety mechanisms, they will achieve nothing.
Israel must not forego its key transportation route, the know-how, command and control, control and management, and most of all, the loyal railway workers for an academic adventure of a few economists - an adventure that has failed all over the world.
The author is the chairwoman of the Israel Railways workers committee.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 20, 2011
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