CITY AND SUBURBAN
MacGregorail regrets the delay to its special guess who won't board the train
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
The franchised train now standing on Platform One has been delayed, and will not depart for at least another year. Please listen for further announcements. This, in the adenoidal tones of the Tannoy, is the message from John MacGregor at the Department of Transport. He had given the all-clear for private franchises to oper- ate trains and this weekend was meant to see the first departures. What has delayed them? Operational difficulties, late arrival of incoming stock, staff shortages, leaves? Non-arrival of incoming money? That sounds more like it. The City has been in a giving mood for months now, and new issues have come flooding to the stock mar- ket — builders cashing in their bricks, chi- roscience (can this mean complasters?) and caterers, newspaper publishers and waste-recyclers, trusts for investing in Israel, in Japan, in Britain, in smaller British companies, in unquoted British companies, in pretty well everything except railways. I do not detect venture capital rushing to catch the train. The usual self- publicists (like Richard Branson) excepted, the only evident interest is from the rail- ways' present managers. They are bidding for their jobs. Besides, they can see other managers buying out businesses and mak- ing fortunes when they come to market, and must hope it will work for them too. Of course, if Mr MacGregor gives their lines away with enough money, that could hap- pen, but it would scarcely make his first idea a good one, or economic or profitable.
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