MUCH of what John Robinson said in his impassioned and sometimes angry speech at the National Railway Museum in York was right.

Today's trouble on the tracks can be blamed on a history of under-investment reaching back almost to the industry's Victorian origins, the Railtrack chairman pointed out. State involvement in the railways is crucial, but successive governments have merely meddled in the industry for short-term expediency.

Mr Robinson saved his real vitriol for his modern political masters, however. By pulling the plug on Railtrack, the Government's behaviour was "unethical if not immoral". If, as he says, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers had given every indication that Railtrack enjoyed his continuing support, Mr Robinson's fury at what happened is understandable.

To push the company into insolvency without any forewarning is an example of the kind of knee-jerk ministerial decision-making that has bedevilled the railways for generations. It also played politics with the lives of Railtrack workers.

But the mismanagement of Railtrack's demise does not alter the fundamental truth: it had no future. It was the most bodged enterprise of a disastrously-rushed privatisation. It was asked to be both a profit-maker and safety regulator; as Hatfield so tragically exposed, this was an impossible dual role.

The economics of Railtrack made little more sense. It has ploughed massive investment into the infrastructure. But it has also received huge sums of Government cash - taxpayers' money which has effectively subsidised shareholders' dividends.

Mr Robinson warned the Government not to allow the company's successor to be "a hybrid from hell". That is a very good description of Railtrack: a private company with enormous public responsibilities making vast private profits propped up by public money.

Private finance can and must continue to be attracted to help maintain the track and stations, just as is the case with some road-building schemes. But, like Britain's roads, the rail network is vital to our national interest and should therefore be the State's responsibility.

Updated: 11:37 Friday, November 02, 2001