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NATIONALISATION KILLS PEOPLE
I note that Ian Walmsley quotes me in his excellent ‘Pan Up’ article in December’s issue. We know each other well enough for this to be welcome, but an explanation is required. My rather crude phrase ‘nationalisation kills people’ is not true because it is repeated, nor because it fits my long career experience and interest in railway safety, but because it fits the facts.
There is evidence emerging of long-term trends that support this view, which may be uncomfortable for those who subscribe dogmatically to the idea that all public services should be delivered by state monopolies, albeit (miraculously) acting in the interests of customers. Three strands of evidence come from comparison with railways in the rest of Europe.
In helping the European Commission prepare the Fourth Ra…
