Share the investment

As a mere mortal, a mere railway passenger, to me Labour’s renationalisation plan is all a load of political hogwash.

Fragmentation? What does that mean to everyday customers? What we want is some share, here up North, of the vast investment in the South East. How about cancelling that white elephant of extortionate expense - Crossrail 2?

The Buxton-Manchester line (subject of recent RAIL correspondence) has been waiting for 70 years for electrification, and what do we have today? Ancient diesel multiple units with no fast trains, no timetable improvements, guards who can’t collect fares, and generally no sign of any modernisation either in trains or stations.

When Northern was replaced by Arriva, I got down and kissed the platform at Buxton, with thanks that at last there was some hope after the miserable ‘no growth’ era. But we are still waiting, and before long we may be thrust backwards (not forwards) if Ian Taylor and Jeremy Corbyn manage to take us back to the days of BR.

Whatever its faults, privatisation opened up a new robust era that tried to provide what the customer expects. The subsequent growth has generated unforeseen problems that a return to nationalisation will not solve.

Meanwhile, I await the betterment of our Buxton service. I may just, at 84, live long enough. J M Dixon, Buxton