> On Jun 22, 9:45 pm, "Gaz" msn.com> wrote:

>> allan tracy wrote:

>>> Quote from Tom Harris (Labour) - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of
>>> State for Transport interviewed for 'Week In Week Out'.
>>> "If Labour had come to power in 1997 and the railways had still been
>>> nationalised then I think we would have privatised them.
>>> To say that (cost) is the only hurdle to re-nationalise is simply not
>>> true.
>>> The private railway has provided a level of investment, innovation,
>>> imagination that wouldn’t have happened if British Rail had stayed as
>>> it was.
>>> If you speak to suppliers they are displaying a level of commitment
>>> and enthusiasm that you just wouldn’t have got under a nationalised
>>> industry.
>>> I don’t think that if BR had stayed as it was up until 1994/95 we
>>> would have as good a service as we do have today."

>> A bit of frank and refreshing honesty. A lot of things are wrong with the
>> railways, but privatisaiton has turned around a declining industry.
>>
>> Gaz- Hide quoted text -
>>
>> - Show quoted text -

>
> And there are fairies at the bottom of my garden! I'll tell you what
> should have been done.
>
> (i) The old BRB should have been reorganised, and given a free hand.
> what could it have done with all the funding wasted during the
> privatisation process!
> (ii) A proper National Rail Strategy (within the context of an
> integrated public transport system), should have been devised,
> including a major electrification programme and high speed lines.
> (iii) The marketing organisation should have been purged (or hung,
> drawn, and quartered).
> (iv) The civil servants at the D of T and the Treasury should have
> been firmly put in their places (or hung, drawn, and quartered).
> (v) Redevelopment/modernisation should have been financed by BRB
> issued bonds, just as in France, and funding should not be counted as
> part of the PSBR.
>
> Tom Harris seems to be an idiot. Perhaps he is channeling Barbara
> Castle?
>
> Dr. Barry Worthington