Any other business | 28 May 2011

Another rail report chugs past like an empty freight train bound for the sidings

Sir Roy McNulty’s report on the state of Britain’s railways chugged by last week like one of those unmarked freight trains that sometimes pass through stations. ‘Stand well back from the platform,’ says the announcer, making us wonder whether the wagons are full of explosives. But such is the inefficiency of our rail system that they’re more likely to be being shunted empty from one siding to another — which is what will happen to McNulty’s ‘Rail Value For Money Study’ if unions and other vested interests have their way.

McNulty found that many European train services are 40 per cent cheaper to operate than ours, and that it ought to be possible to find £1 billion a year in efficiency savings by 2019. But meanwhile, as trains become increasingly overcrowded, fares will continue rising at 3 per cent above inflation.