State-owned has merits

Industry Insider states that airlines don’t run airports or air traffic control systems ( RAIL 844), yet from the beginning railways traditionally built their own rolling

stock, laid track, in fact owned everything to do with their operations.

Apart from building their own stock, railways across Europe still own and run all their infrastructure, even if they are nominally separated as an EU requirement. Are the state-owned railways in Europe really worse than Britain’s private companies? Clearly not, as we trust them to operate many of our franchises.

Is the growth in passenger numbers really down to privatisation? Unlikely, as other factors are at play, such as road congestion.

The reason for cutbacks at British Rail was lack of funding by the Government. Just think how much BR could have achieved with the amount of money pouring in now. And we wouldn’t have had the cost overruns on electrification, as the expertise would still be there - unlike now, where we had to start from scratch. Ian Francis, Luton