"The Labour proposals are lacking in detail, and seem to involve
contradictions.
"There is the usual arbitrary state planning 'targets' with no
understanding of how markets work. There is the the ritual
denunciation of profits and the belief that 'communities' (or
rather political bosses) have a role to play; but their role
always seems to be to demand more money, resist closures, and
open more lines, irrespective of any commercial discipline.
"Bureaucracy is to be scrapped, but we're inventing a new
passenger 'watchdog'. We want more investment, but we're going to
run down existing contracts, suggesting that even routine
maintenance will be neglected. We want more freight on the rails,
but rather than encourage this successful private sector
activity, we impose a top-down requirement to boost freight —
how? Freight is finding it difficult to grow faster because there
are only limited train paths — the West Coast in particular is at
capacity — and because many cross-country routes are not
electrified, sometimes single-track and subject to speed limits.
Open access, a real success story, is similarly restricted.
"The huge omission from these 'plans' is how to handle an
oversized, often overpaid and relentlessly militant workforce and
boost productivity — the only way to keep some sort of control on
costs."
