Can he make the trains run at all?

It'll be a long time coming

The prime minister has won international praise for his handling of the terrorism crisis and his epic ambitions for global harmony, but he seems also, finally, to have got the message that at home people are not convinced his government can run the railways. And, when it comes to voting, safe trains might prove more important than world peace.

In his New Year message, Tony Blair admits that rail services are a source of huge public frustration, and it will 'take sustained investment' to put things right.

Mr Blair's problem is that most people may think they have heard all that before.

According to leaked results from polls carried out for Labour by the influential adviser Philip Gould, the public gives the government a -49% rating on transport.

Gould warns Blair

The latest panic has been triggered by a rail safety report from engineering firm, Ove Arup. It blames what is called 'systematic failure' by contractors and inadequate inspection for the continued presence of cracked rails, of the type that led to the Hatfield crash.

In another blow, the manager of Railtrack's Great Western zone, John Curley, warned that up to 10% of the national track was "at or beyond the end" of its working life.

He added that the industry was "half a dozen engineering resignations away from shutting down" because the company is losing the senior engineering staff it needs to maintain its statutory level of control.

Private planning

The purpose of the planning system is to identify what residents - democrats- would like to see from it and to make sure the rules accord with the wishes of local people

Simon Jenkins

Dealing with planning applications is, at first sight, an unlikely task to transfer to private consultants. The need for even-handedness and transparency makes it a natural job for the public sector.

However, an experiment in Staffordshire has been seized on by the government as an example of how councils can effectively part-privatise the planning process.

Chris Ledgard reports on the implications of contracting out local authority planning decisions to private firms and interviews Simon Jenkins, former editor of the Times, who raises the issue of the loss of local democracy.

---

To listen to the audio, click on the links above.