Times letters: Labour's plan to get the railways back on track

Times

30-07-2025

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Sir, Tony Lodge's market-led vision sits uneasily alongside the principle underpinning the state's rail renationalisation effort: that rail should be a public service, co-ordinated in the national interest, and not fragmented for private gain ('How to make Great British Railways a success', Jul 28). Open-access operators can target only the most commercially viable routes, without any obligation to serve loss-making areas or maintain a service during downturns. They do not receive subsidies but nor do they contribute to the cross-subsidy model that helps to sustain wider network coverage.
This raises a fundamental tension. A publicly owned railway aims to prioritise universal access, cohesion and public benefit. Open access, by contrast, is selective, profit-driven and potentially undermines the very structure intended to serve the whole travelling public, not just those on high-yield corridors. The challenge for Great British Railways is to reconcile efficiency and innovation with equity and public accountability; a coherent national rail service cannot afford to be cherrypicked.Michael RobinsonRet'd civil engineering consultant, Onston, Cheshire
Sir, Your editorial ('Heritage Railway', Jul 29), and Tony Lodge's dream of multiple open-access operators competing on the rail network, overlook the shortage of capacity on the tracks. After years of growth the rail network consists of bottlenecks joined up by pinch points. It is now impossible to add another train to the service without making multiple trade-offs and compromises with the requirements of other operators, social objectives and performance. In the absence of sufficient supply for a free market in capacity to operate, the choice is either centralised management doing its best to address all needs, or a seller's market.William BarterFellow, Chartered Institution of Railway Operators
Sir, Tony Lodge's Thunderer and Alistair Osborne's column (Jul 29) on the rail renationalisation programme are welcome critiques of it. There may be a number of factors militating against a benign outcome for Great British Railways, but one thing seems evident. The different 'sectors' that became established in British Rail's overall structure could point to a future where, for example, commercially oriented sectors (think of InterCity and Railfreight) operated as private-sector competing organisations, while natural monopolies (those providing shorter-distance commuter and suburban journeys) were held in public-sector, democratically accountable organisations.David Cooper-SmithBletchley, Bucks
Sir, Further to Tony Lodge's article, services may have grown during the privatisation era but reliability and punctuality have not. Plus, fares are too complex and too high. Open-access applications have tended to concentrate on providing additional services to/from London, where the approaches consist of the routes most under strain from lack of capacity. Innovative open-access applications linking provincial towns and cities, eg Carlisle to Bristol or Liverpool to Leicester, seem scarce. Not everyone wants to travel just to London. Co-ordination between operators over timetables remains, it seems, a distant goal with the latest attempt to revitalise east coast services this coming December fraught with difficulties and disagreements.
Great British Railways may have a number of issues still to address, but at least with public ownership there is an attempt to bring together track and train and to co-ordinate in the public's interest services that run essentially over one network.Anthony BoldenRustington, W Sussex
Sir, Further to William Hague's excellent column 'Push for peace now or two-state dream is dead' (Jul 29), and particularly the points he makes towards the end, I hope that all concerned will not neglect the wise advice of the late Aharon Nathan that a three-state solution, with Israel, the West Bank and Gaza as three separate states, would be far more likely to bring peace, stability and happiness to the Middle East than a two-state solution that tries artificially to link two separate territories and groups of people with significantly differing interests and cultures in a federated Palestinian state cut in two by Israeli territory.
There are surely lessons to be learnt, as he also suggested, from the short-lived attempt to create a single state of West and East Pakistan, with India in between.Andrew EdwardsLondon SW19
Sir, I have considerable respect for William Hague but waiting for 'the existence of a viable state' before recognising Palestine would serve only to provide Hamas and other terrorist organisations with a continued casus belli, and the Israelis with every incentive to continue their acquisition of Palestinian lands.
A Palestinian state should be recognised as soon as possible by the UN, conditional only on Hamas (and all other organisations representing the Palestinians) acknowledging the right of the state of Israel to exist. Israel for its part needs to undertake not to allow any further encroachment on Palestinian lands as defined by the Palestine Mandate, and agree to the principle of independent Palestinian states both on the West Bank and in Gaza. Without such reciprocal acknowledgement and recognition there can be no solution to this problem; the responsibility of the western powers, especially the US, is to do all they can to persuade both sides of this.Robert ChalmersNorwich
Sir, Further to Dr Arun Baksi's comments on the progressive decline in the working conditions of NHS staff (letters, July 28 & 29), at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol more than 50 years ago my husband, a surgeon, and I would enjoy Sunday lunches provided free in the mess served by waiting staff wearing uniform and white gloves. This was followed by relaxing in the swimming pool and a cream tea. The doctors would then play croquet on the lawn outside, having the time to discuss treatment plans for their patients. It was recognition from the hospital for the time, dedication and care given by nurses and doctors.Gill OrnsteinHarrow
Sir, Before the government gets too excited about restricting virtual private networks ('Online child safety law 'threatens free speech' ', Jul 29), it should be aware that almost every university in the UK (and Europe) uses VPNs for authentication to university services for remote working. Similarly, VPNs are used in finance, banking, commerce and just about everywhere else where secure connections are required.
Incognito access to the dark web is perfectly possible, without using a VPN, using systems such as the Tor Browser, which is specifically designed for that purpose. Restrictions on Tor, I2P and dark-web plug-ins for Chrome and Firefox is where the government might be better directing its focus to tighten online safety and security.Dr Anthony HarrisDirector of studies for computer science, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Sir, Melanie Phillips's article ('Ayn Rand is no figurehead for conservatism', comment, Jul 29) focuses on Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged, as the definitive example of all purportedly wrong with her work, which must therefore be 'dumped'. However, she offers a simplistic understanding of Rand's contribution to literature, underscored by the continuing relevance of arguably her best work, The Fountainhead. The devotion of the novel's protagonist, Howard Roark, to the application of true innovation and integrity in the field of architecture has inspired countless budding architects and aspirational individuals.
In light of the continuous shape-shifting of conservatism through the decades, Phillips would do well to mark Roark's words: 'I inherit nothing. I stand at the end of no tradition. I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.'Darius Latham-KoenigLondon SW1
Sir, Professor Rob Gross (letter, Jul 29), the director of the UK Energy Research Centre, repeats the erroneous mantra about levelised costs of wind energy being cheaper than gas. Wind energy, of course, is naturally unpredictable and unreliable. Today, wind energy only produced between 3 per cent and 5 per cent of the country's electricity needs, and natural gas back-up was needed. Wind energy adds considerably to the required infrastructure needed to ensure grid stability; these factors are always omitted from such levelised cost 'guesstimates'.
Moreover, Professor Gross does not mention that the critical issue of the disposal of turbine blades has not been solved. A reliance on wind energy will always reduce our energy security; he must surely know that the key components of generators are wholly imported from China, so his claim that this is a 'homegrown' source of energy is misleading.Professor Peter J DobsonUniversity of Oxford
Sir, The outburst by the Bishop of Fulham does the Church of England and us clergy little credit ('Bolshy bishop gives choir a dressing gown dressing down', Jul 28). It is an indication of too many self-important bishops who collectively hold back parish life (of which many of them know little) and fail to encourage vocations to increase the number of much-needed parochial clergy, without whom the Church will not grow and many ordinary people will be denied support when they need it.The Rev Toddy HoareDanby Wiske, N Yorks
Sir, The loss of fingers at work is not restricted to the metal-bashing industry (letter, Jul 29). At the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in 1969 there was a staff officer who had lost two fingers in two incidents. The first was caused by a submarine periscope sinking into its well when his hand was in the way. The second reportedly came about when he demonstrated, later, how the first injury had occurred.Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Carr (Royal Navy, ret'd)Melksham, Wilts
Sir, As a woman in her seventies, I must rather ruefully inform Mariah Carey that, while she may not know time, time will certainly get to know her ('Ageing won't happen to me — I won't allow it', news, Jul 29).Natalie BogodWest Bridgford, Notts
Sir, Jo Elvins's piece left me with more questions than answers about myself ('Is your husband a Whole Man like mine?', Times2, Jul 29). I fulfil all 14 of the criteria listed to identify myself as a gentler man but also enjoy red meat, football and competition.Does this make me more or less than a Whole Man?Michael DickOngar, Essex
Sir, In his scone recipe in Times2 ('Save our scones', Jul 29), Paul Hollywood suggests the use of 'a generous helping of jam'. Not any jam will do, however — the right choice is of great importance. I suggest damson, a good, tart raspberry or, best of all, chuckleberry. The cream, of course, must be Cornish clotted.Clare BeardSheffield
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