Politicians 'cost railways £14bn'

POLITICAL meddling in the railways has cost the taxpayer billions of pounds, says the rail watchdog. Regulator Tom Winsor said political interference had also delayed improvements, driven up costs and alarmed private investors.

He predicted that Network Rail, the not-for-profit successor to Railtrack, would eventually end up being re-privatised.

Winsor, who leaves his job this Sunday after five turbulent years, said that letting Railtrack languish in administration for a year before forming Network Rail had wasted £14bn of taxpayers' money.

'I think the Government hated Railtrack,' he said. 'They saw it as a symbol of the Conservatives' privatisation programme. They couldn't attack the sale of energy or water, but here was something that could be attacked.'

He told Channel 4 News last night: 'I reckon that at least 20% of my personal time in office in the last five years has been spent dealing with unwarranted political interference.'

Winsor is still angry at ex-Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, who forced Railtrack into administration in the wake of the Hatfield rail crash in October 2000.

'Everything was made far worse,' he said, 'by Railtrack's lost year of administration, which ended up costing the taxpayer £14bn, which is a pretty expensive way of replacing a board of directors.

'What I predict is that in a few years' time Network Rail will be converted back into a private company,' he told The Spectator magazine.