Tell them nothing!

Not a good day for Chris Austin OBE, the Director of Public Policy at ATOC.

Austin used to head up communications at the SRA before Bowker moved him sideways.

With good reason, judging by this in the Western Daily Press...

At the beginning of last year, WSR (the West Somerset Railway) was offered free use of a rail grinding machine by Network Rail to upgrade the surface of its tracks, on the basis it would be a useful training exercise for Network Rail...

As a result, most of the steam train services had to be suspended until mid-July, with the timetable being maintained by vintage diesel locomotive...

In his report, (David Morgan of the HRA)... said: "It seems that management woke up rather late to the fact that there was a public relations problem at all.

"In his letter, the (then) chairman, Chris Austin, candidly admits that he took the decision not to press release the bad news of the track problems more widely 'both to protect the reputation of the railway and to protect revenue during a difficult year'.

Morgan concludes "The lack of dissemination of the bad news resulted in many groups coming long distances to travel on a steam train to be confronted by the lack of such a service, or at worst cancellations."

Good to see such devotion to transparency from the man in charge of ATOC's Public Policy.