Back on track
Sir: I am very surprised that Simon Jenkins, that well-known exposer of phoney govern- ment statistics, should have fallen for the figures which the Treasury claims are need- ed to subsidise the Fort William sleeper (Centre point, 1 April). All his instincts, both as a journalist and a former member of the board of British Railways, should have prompted him to question that absurd figure of £450 per passenger trip which has been used to justify the impending closure of the line.
It's a fraud of course, as Mr Jenkins must know if he thinks about it. That works out at more than £6 million a year, enough to pay for 100 men working five days a week, 52 weeks a year, just to service one sleeper train. Even British Rail management isn't that bad. No, the true figure is about a tenth of this — £45 subsidy per one-way passenger, and of course the bulk of that goes on maintaining the line. The with- drawal of the sleeper service would make only a marginal difference. With a bit of marketing, rather than the deliberate run- ning down of the service, it could even make a profit.
And, by the way, campaigning for the preservation of the service is not just for the walking and the stalking class, it's for the real people who use it, as well as for the tourist class which represents the staple industry of Northern Scotland. Far from being insane, those who want to keep the Fort William sleeper are rather more in tune with the needs of the Highlands than those who write from El.
Magnus Linklater
5 Drummond Place, Edinburgh
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