Rail privatisation failed - Official

Telegrammed by Leo Pink
The Government's response to the Franchising Consultation appears to mark a clean break with the policies of the discredited Major, Blair and Brown years.

Or so it would appear from this:

• A significant part of revenue growth that has occurred on past franchises has been due to macroeconomic growth rather than solely a result of good management on the part of the operator.

Quite a startling piece of revisionism that.

And then there is this:

• Demand growth is largely outside an operator’s control.

Presumably demand shrink too, so National Express East Coast was a hapless victim of economic forces?

And best of all this:

• The devolution of rail services in Merseyside and London has had an extremely positive effect on patronage.

So state control beats market forces!

Should we read this as an apology from Petrol-head and his Marsham Street minions?