Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
When it comes to erasing inconvenient historical truths the ATOC press office makes the airbrush artists of the Soviet Union look like rank amateurs.
Here a spokesman, quoted in today's FT, responds to the Great Slow Trains scandal:
"Punctuality had improved significantly to 90% plus after languishing around 80% a decade ago".
In the real world a decade is equivalent to 10 years.
Therefore 2008 minus 10 years takes us back to errr...1998.
According to the former SRA's ineffable National Rail Trends publication PPM in 1998/99 was 87.9%.
Just one year earlier (1997/98) PPM was actually a stonking 89.7%!
And, of course, in those dim and distant days the railway needed half the cash it soaks up today.
So is it the policy of the new brooms at ATOC to be 'economique avec la veritie'?
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