2006-08-12

The Thatcher Legacy—higher public expenses

Simon Jenkins has written an article in the Guardian, quoting a study that shows how the privatisation of rail transport in the UK has led to HM Government having to pay more than three times the earlier national operating costs in subsidies to the “private” companies.

It would be quite interesting to see what a similar study would find about the privatisation of Swedish rail transport. The least it would find is that it certainly does not even operate as well as British rail— there still isn't a single site similar to National Rail that will tell you how to get from point A to point B regardless of operating company. In fact, the recommended method is to use the site of Deutsche Bahn to figure out how to get from Laxå to Gällivare!

And now 440 km of track is to be closed (and torn up?) because Banverket can't afford to maintain the track. It seems eminently stupid, both for environmental reasons and as flying is becoming more complicated anyway.

What is the Government doing about all this, I ask?

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