LETTERS Railery
Sir: Mr A. N. Wilson ('Time to turn to Labour', 11 March) laments the lack of investment in necessary public services by the Government. I do not agree with his solution that we must now all vote Labour, but he is quite right to draw attention to the lack of investment in British Rail by this government.
In the February issue of Landscape and Country Times magazine there is a general discussion on the run-down of the railways by this government, and the figures are given for investment in railways per head of the population for European countries. Belgium gives £77 per capita, West Ger- many gives £40 and England is bottom with £17 per capita for BR.
The foreword to the 1988 edition of Jane's World Railways gives details of the decline in rail investment in this decade.
With the major exception of the DB [West German railways] most Western railways improved their financial results. Star perfor- mer was British Rail. With its state support still rapidly declining, down from £1,080 million in 1983 to £780 in FY 1987-88 (and heading for only £475 million or so by FY 1992-93), BR came up with a group surplus of £291 million in FY 1987-88.
The trouble with reducing investment for railways to get ready to privatise them is either that one has more safety problems as at Clapham or people have disagreeable experiences in using the railways and won't want to invest in them.
Rupert Pitt The Parsonage, Rupert Pitt The Parsonage,
Itchen Stoke, Alresford, Hampshire
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