EVEN by his own somewhat eccentric standards, E F Showell's latest offering, about the Railtrack debacle, (You Say, October 26), was decidedly wide of the mark.
Railtrack was most certainly not "bankrupted" by the Government. It failed, purely and simply, because it preferred to recycle massive Government grant (i.e., of taxpayers' money) as shareholder-dividend and greedy directors' payouts rather than to improve track and related facilities. The safety of these was called into serious question at Paddington and Hatfield.
It is laughable to claim that our railways were privatised on "orders" from Europe.
Tory policy was always to sell off the family silver - in this particular case, at hugely below the market value, and within a fragmented structure that never stood much chance of delivering an effective, integrated rail service.
COUN DAVID BARLOW,
St Barnabas Ward,
Worcester.
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