tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5498991095356433920.post3462333523153001952..comments2023-10-26T10:45:41.148+01:00Comments on The Rambler: Want a reason for re-nationalising British railways? Try 23 billion...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05116092118768607000noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5498991095356433920.post-78493940451385209082011-01-31T04:08:46.247+00:002011-01-31T04:08:46.247+00:00The problem with your argument Nick is that Networ...The problem with your argument Nick is that Network Rail is a nationalised company – it has been since it was incorporated by any sane interpretation of ‘nationalisation’. Describing it as a ‘private company’ was always a fiction designed only to keep its debts off the national books and try and stop the Government having to pay out too much to Railtrack shareholders. <br /><br />I have worked with British Rail, Railtrack, and Network Rail and although Railtrack was dysfunctional it was still by far the best of the three at delivering economic improvments to its network!<br /><br />Separating the infrastructure from operations was probably an error, but this is a long way from saying that the railways we have now are worse than we had before privatisation – by any measure they are infinitely superior. The fact that Labour renationalised the infrastructure and then spent a fortune (as it did on other parts of the public sector) not achieving much other than providing Ian Coucher with an estate in Scotland is not an argument that the railways should remain in the public sector, or that the relatively small part of the industry that is in the private sector should not remain so.Michael Flynnnoreply@blogger.com