The state of the railways

The Treasury thought the railways were in terminal decline. John Major’s government thought they were a political nuisance — vexed commuters meant lost voters. Privatisation would get the railways off the government’s back, and breaking them into 100 pieces would mean that if one piece was on strike, the other 99 would not be. In the event, they refused to go away, and have maintained an obstinate tendency to put on business. Successive governments have had to cope with the consequences, and we must soon be due for the next set of answers.

For New Labour, sweeping into power a dozen years ago, the first and easiest answer was to abandon its costly threats to buy the railways back. Instead a vast new ministry headed by John Prescott would take charge of transport, and the railways were to have a ten-year plan and a Strategic Rail Authority to make it work.