Core Articles: Delivering Better Transport? An Evaluation of the Ten--Year Plan for the Railway Industry

In July 2000, the Government published Transport 2010, its ten--year plan to improve Britain’s transport. This article reviews the proposals to improve the railway system, and examines their likely effects on investment by the railway companies and on passenger safety. The plan is analysed in the context of the structure of the privatized railway industry and its regulatory bodies, with particular reference to the performance of Railtrack (now in administration). The authors conclude that the Government was over--confident in believing that a defective privatized structure could deliver the expansion it wanted. The article shows that the Government has been relying on inadequate and under--performing instruments, over some of which it had little control. This will probably continue unless Railtrack is restructured and taken back into public ownership. Progress so far has been limited, and the prospects of success are not good.