State-controlled rail: a boon or a bust?

AS A retired railwayman, I can tell you that the re-nationalisation of our railways Jeremy Corbyn is demanding would never work — and for one reason: a Labour government could not afford the astronomical cost or be able to pay for all the improvements now in the pipeline (and I suspect they would simply cancel all those planned improvements). Thirty years ago, our railways were dirty and inefficient, there was no thought for passenger’s convenience or comfort, and the staff were mostly uninterested. The picture now is totally different, and it shows in the modern trains, improved time-keeping and staff who value customers. Let us build on what is good and what is working.

WILF SKELTON, Fulford, York.

I DOUBT if most criticism of the ‘hell of British Rail’ (Mail) is based on personal experience. Could today’s service match my experience on a British Rail journey between Edinburgh and a minor station between Berwick and Newcastle in 1954? Shortly after leaving Edinburgh, the inspector told me the train wouldn’t stop between Berwick and Newcastle, and I’d have to catch the first stopping train the next day. A few minutes later, he returned to say he’d checked his timetable and a stopping parcel train was due in Berwick just after we arrived. He would phone ‘control’ to seek agreement for it to be re-designated as a passenger train. ‘Control’ did agree and a porter unlocked one of the parcel train’s compartments while another changed the lamps on the engine to signify it was now a ‘passenger train’. At one stop, the driver walked back to explain he had to reverse into a siding to allow a ‘fish train’ to pass and I must wait on the platform. Soon my journey resumed, and eventually the driver walked back to inform me the next station was where I wanted to get off. You couldn’t expect any similar service from today’s railway.

Dr D. IAN McCALLUM, Claygate, Surrey.