James Moore: Rail's borrowing is shunted into the sidings
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Outlook Back in 2001, MPs argued that Railtrack had managed Britain's rail infrastructure with such breathtaking incompetence that it should have been re-nationalised.
After some distinctly fishy goings-on in government in the days and weeks leading up to the company's eventual demise, ministers settled on an alternative option and Network Rail was born.
There were a number of reasons for this. For a start, it meant someone other than the transport secretary would carry the can in the event of accidents or simply commuters continuing frustrations with shoddy service and late running trains.
Of equal importance, an awful lot of rail debt would be kept off Britain's books. Said debt has now risen to £28bn and is starting to look like a train crash. Tish tosh, says the finance director, it just makes us like any other utility. Quite how that's supposed to be of any comfort is open to question.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments