The ongoing saga of the east coast railway services reaches another stage tonight as National Express lose the franchise earlier than originally planned and for approximately two years the service becomes State run.
The company formerly known as Abbey Rail Ltd has changed names to East Coast Railway Company Ltd, and is a parent of the newly-formed Directly Operated Railways Ltd which is part of the Department of Transport.
According to the official press release National Express's franchise ended at 23:59hrs last night. ECRC (DOR) then took over, trading as 'East Coast'. Here's the chart:-
This chart really speaks about the government's policy's repeating failure. They have been forced to take ownership in a literal sense, but don't want to take ownership in the other sense. That's to say they don't want responsibility, they don't really want to touch this business, like having to pick up a dirty sock when you don't want to go anywhere near it (not that this train franchise is a dirty sock! I'm just trying to conjure the image/feeling of having to do something combined with wanting to be as far from it as possible.)
Do you want the good news first?
The Moon in Libra in the 2nd house shows the public as the owners, as well as the passengers of course. The Moon is in trine with Jupiter, the planet of long distance journeys. Moon-Jupiter aspects are generally favourable for public opinion too. The problem with Libra and Jupiter is that they both have a tendency to put a positive angle on things, and not face up to harsh facts. Especially so since Jupiter is conjunct Neptune, the planet of deception. The Moon links harmoniously with the UK's Mercury in the 3rd house, so that's another bonus.
Mercury, planet of commuting, is emphasised by its placement at the IC, right at the bottom of the chart. It's also conjunct the Sun. These things place it very central, which is fair enough. However in Scorpio things tend to be a bit covered up, more so because this Sun-Mercury conjunction is square to Neptune.... And Mercury is unaspected: do we want an unconnected network? A septile with Mars isn't too welcome either - we don't want everyone getting enthralled with the idea that haste is more important than anything else.
On the upside Mercury is on the Jupiter/Ascendant midpoint, a good symbol of travelling being the core activity of the business.
I just think that Mercury - especially as the chart ruler - being unaspected means that no-one wants to touch this, and no-one wants to take ownership of it in either sense of the phrase. Look at Saturn in Libra in the 2nd - the burden of ownership. It's square Pluto, so there's a sense of compulsion about it - 'oh well, if we have to....' And also something a little bit shady going on behind the scenes. Other than that, Saturn's only aspect is a septile with the Sun. Saturn's unaspectedness indicates disconnecting from ownership. In my opinion there's a statement in these planets about exploitation for profit.
In short, I don't think this franchise will sort out any of the problems that have hampered this large section of the national train service. It seems to me like 'more of the same'. That doesn't mean it's fated; it means that the agenda of the government is of this nature. I suspect the financing/profitability problems will continue, if not grow. There's a lot of potential here for a 'cowboy' approach, a bit of a slapdash or 'bish bash bosh - job's done' approach. I don't think there'll be the necessary investment of money or management, and I think that the chart is showing that the urgent task will be to minimise financial costs by selling it off as quickly as possible (so that they don't have to spend money running it for a second longer than necessary, or face too much public pressure for investment that they have no intention of making) and doing a sales deal (perhaps a secret one) for a pitifully small amount too.
