Letter: Transport needs long-term plan

BRITISH RAIL staff do extremely well under impossible circumstances. Privatisation is certainly not the sensible answer for the future, especially if BR is not allowed to bid. It is, however, a brilliant way for the Government to abdicate its responsibility for financial investment.

BR should not be allowed to deteriorate further. We need a sensible, integrated national transport policy now for road, rail and even water. Private businesses use one-, three- and five-year plans to ensure the business and its staff know where they are going and what they must achieve. Is it too much to ask ministers to do the same and create a proper co- ordinated long-term strategy for all transport?

John Ashmore

West Wittering, West Sussex