Mr Byers' political crisis arises from incompetence on a grand scale.Only the incompetence is less to do with Mr Byers than with his victim. The screaming headlines ignore the fact that the Secretary of State for Transport is finally taking on a privatised monopoly that was costing the taxpayer a fortune without delivering a decent service.The chutzpah of Railtrack in the current row is especially breathtaking. The company's leading figures are showing a determined focus in their current fightback that they never displayed when they were shyly in charge the railways. On every media outlet, one of its representatives is suddenly available for comment. In a brilliant PR operation the company pleads that it was ready to complete nobly its task of reviving the railways. The opportunity to continue its good work was taken away by a recklessly ruthless minister who did not know what he was doing.Before we start shedding too many tears we should remind ourselves that it is quite a novelty in itself to hear and see so much of Railtrack's main players.
When it was running the railways, the company quite often refused to appear in the media. An item about the appalling state of the tracks would often end with a presenter stating, "We asked Railtrack to take part in the report, but no one was available." Now it is fighting for its life, rather than fighting for the railways, Railtrack is available to comment at 8.10am on the Today programme or at 3.00am on Radio Skegness. For the first time, it is willing to adopt a high media profile.Yet its case is pathetically flimsy. It did not even handle its most recent cash crisis – the one that triggered Mr Byers' actions – with any competence. The words of the rail regulator, Roger Winsor, have been turned against Mr Byers and Railtrack is rubbing its hands with glee This is perverse. The main thrust of Mr Winsor's argument is that Railtrack should have raised the cash crisis with him rather than with the Government. He said that the company had made a "big mistake" by going behind his back.
He also added that Railtrack had made another huge error in failing to force the Strategic Rail Authority to stick to its agreement to set up a new company, Renewco, thereby enabling Railtrack to receive a £1.5bn cash advance.This should be no great surprise. A company that failed to invest properly in the railways, over-reacted to the Hatfield crash by virtually closing down the network, failed to meet its own deadlines for a return to near normality (that is normality as defined by Railtrack, which means a Third World operation to the rest of us) could not even follow established procedures to obtain some additional cash.The latest frenzy about Mr Byers arises from his apparent threat to prevent Mr Winsor from undertaking an interim review of Railtrack, and whether he misled the Commons on what he said about the regulator's independence. There is, in this dispute, a problem that goes to the heart of the way the Government runs some public services Ministers give theoretical independence to regulators. In reality, that independence is entirely dependent on the Government.
