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the deficit
That was a nice turn of phrase from Sir Richard Marsh last week, when he suggested that there was an anti-rail lobby at the DoE. There's an anti-rail lobby all round the country and now we can see why. "Don't allow buses to compete with us on inter-city passenger routes" is the latest impertinent plea_ If that had to happen we'd all soon be reading stickers in the rail compartments reminding us we were travelling by courtesy of NUR. ASLEF, TSSA and anyone else who could disrupt a monopoly service.
Sir Richard is leaving British Rail very soon so perhaps he should have observed a discreet silence, especially on matters of long-distance freight.
His successor is Peter Parker, whose present company, Rockware Glass Ltd, uses 300-plus vehicles daily on long-distance distribution work. He may have his own road v rail views.
It was also enlightening to hear Sir Richard say that BR could operate with 40,000 fewer people. How fortunate they are to be able to afford such a luxury. If these 40,000 are costing only £40 a week then that's over £83m a year or half of BR's operating deficit. What's he been waiting for?