Mystic Halcrow

Telegrammed by our man at 222 Marylebone Road
In February 1998, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Railway Division held a conference on Rail 2020.

A paper by a consultant from Halcrow Transmark concluded:

1. It is likely that Government can stop any subsidy payments between 2010 and 2015
2. At the broadest level, taking the total financial viewpoint of money in and money out of the Industry, it becomes break even around the year 2005.

So where did it all go wrong?

UPDATE: A Mr Dixon writes...

It looks like Halcrow have revised their "optimism bias" in recent years.

Let's hope they're wrong on this one as well.