Letter of the Week: Len Gibney on Europe’s state-owned railways

This great letter, entitled 'Europe is on right track when it comes to the train', appeared in the Daily Express.

I’ve travelled by rail extensively in Europe and find trains there cheap and efficient. State operators find ways to fill public needs. Subsidies are used but fares are kept low. It’s not all bonues and profit for directors as it is here, it’s more a necessary public service.

I think anyone who travels regularly on European trains would agree with Len Gibney. Yet Europe’s wonderful railways are under threat from neo-liberal fanatics in the EU Commission, who propose a Single European Railway Area and the end to all government subsidies.

Their proposals must be defeated.