In uk.railway Recliner wrote:
You mean like BR, with steadily declining patronage, line closures, poor
standards of customer service on old trains and lower safety standards?

That's something of a tired refrain, when here one of the issues is lack of
a 'controlling mind' and issues falling between the cracks (of GTR, NR, SE,
GBRf, DfT, SoS)

I'm sure BR wouldn't have been perfect in this instance, but in BR days
there were many fewer cracks to fall down. Once the Treasury had signed the
cheque, BR could just get on with it (at least 1980s BR, maybe less so
1950s).

That the only person who could stop things was the Secretary of
State, who seems not the sharpest tool in the box, does rather suggest that
the controlling mind needs to be elsewhere.

Theo