Readers respond to the government’s plans to restructure the railway industry
‘Maybe it’s time to stop fetishising efficiency in favour of a safer, more people-focused railway.’ Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy
‘Maybe it’s time to stop fetishising efficiency in favour of a safer, more people-focused railway.’ Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy
Letters
Mon 24 May 2021 13.17 EDT
Last modified on Mon 24 May 2021 13.18 EDT
I do not agree with much of what Simon Jenkins says on the plans for a part-nationalised, part-privatised rail network (There’s nothing ‘great’ about this new British Railways revamp, 20 May), but he is right that the model being proposed is wrong. There used to be a simple maxim that the reason for involving the private sector in public services was to transfer risk. Taking risks was something the private sector was supposed to be good at. It targets investments to make the service attractive. It then sells that service to maximise profits. Getting the decisions right is the difficult thing – that is the risk it takes. To do this, it needs to be allowed to make key decisions, such as how big the service is and how often it will run, to match how many it believes it can sell. The more it sells, the better the profits. Simple.