Wish you worked in Italy?
Brexit means that it’s no longer possible to upsticks and move to any European country that takes your fancy.
Previously I might have fantasised about the sun and food upsides of a job in Italy (obviously, for the purpose of fantasy, ignoring the fact I’ve got two kids in school in England, and a mortgage on a house in Walthamstow).
Those days are gone, though I was slightly put off the idea by travels in southern Italy way back in the dim and distant past when we were allowed to travel abroad (i.e. 2019).
I took some rides on the Ferrovie del Sud Est (FSE), the state rail network for Perugia, the 'heel' of Italy and, as someone that can be somewhat intolerant of poor customer service in the UK, it was like another world.
Saves on paint, I suppose…
The timetables seemed to have been designed without the smallest reference to anyone actually wanting to make a journey: obvious peaks missed, connections broken, useful stations skipped.
No stations had information screens of any kind and the ticket office (which was staffed) did not take credit cards.
The trains were staggeringly slow and every single one was late, except one which we missed because it left early.
And, boy, were the trains a sight. While there were a few modern, air-conditioned units (roasting hot as the air con was broken), most were ancient, rattling and covered in graffiti.
I rather liked the inside of the trains. They made me nostalgic for the trains that took me to see my Granny in Hove in the 1980s
I was fascinated to learn how on earth a public transport network could end up in quite such a state of decrepitude.
And guess what I found out? Here's the key quote from the La Stampa article that revealed all:
Luigi Fiorillo, former government commissioner, legal representative and sole director of Ferrovie Sud Est was arrested - along with 11 people - by the Bari Guardia di Finanza for the 230 million euro crash of the Apulian transport company.
In all, 29 people have been investigated in the investigation of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Bari. So far the alleged treasures accumulated by the arrested have also been locked up: seizures of assets for 90 million euros have been carried out.
La Stampa, 1st February 2018
Yes, the FSE ended up £300 million in debt essentially because the management team stole it all. The police report revealed "a deep-rooted system of ad personam assignments of professional assignments and millionaire contracts for services, works and supplies."
This blog is read by senior leaders in transport and mobility. Hopefully there's no-one now thinking 'Wow! What an opportunity!".
Because travelling on FSE is an extraordinary testimony to what can happen when, in the words of the extraordinary commissioner of FSE, an organisation has "has gradually lost its mission: local public transport. The focus of the core business: people who need and have the right to efficient mobility."
