ED Rooksby claims that last week's breakdown of a GNER York to London express was caused by rail privatisation (Letters, July 5). As readers of my previous letters will be aware, I'd be the last one to defend GNER.
But I really can't see how a private rail operator can be held responsible for this specific incident. If your report is correct, it was caused by a power cut. Power supply to the line is the responsibility of Network Rail which, thanks to the actions of Stephen Byers, is now a public sector organisation.
So the problem here is unreliable Government-run services, not private sector ones.
The answer to this is more privatisation and genuine competition, not increased State meddling. As proof I have never suffered a major delay or cancellation in nearly two years of regular, short-hop flights.
Despite air travel being massively taxed and Network Rail being massively state-subsidised, the up-front cost of flying to London is usually about the same as by rail, even taking into account the cost of getting to and from airports.
On a positive note, I was delighted to read that a rival train operator is applying to operate non-stop York to London services. I only hope that GNER's New Labour cronies won't block it and that we'll soon have a genuine choice of operators on that route.
If so, I'd certainly give them a try - especially if their trains use internal combustion engines which don't rely on Network Rail's power supply!
Leo Enticknap,
Ingram House,
Bootham,
York.
Updated: 10:21 Thursday, July 07, 2005
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