O L Leigh
Established Member
Go back a few years. Would you then say it would be easier to resolve the dispute than to close the coal mines?
I fear that's wee bit simplistic. We'd found oil and gas at the bottom of the North Sea by then and I'm sure the government of the day was looking to off-load coal at some point, so having a duff-up with the unions probably suited their purposes.
But where's the transport equivalent of North Sea oil/gas that's waiting in the wings to replace rail?
A foolhardy position? Perhaps. I don't expect rail to be immune from change, but it will continue to survive in some form.