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Posted by Paul F Withrington on January 26, 2005
Subject: The Transport Watch Advert
 

This advert (Click here to see the advert) has, or will, appear as follows:

"The New Statesman" of 3rd December, 10th December and 21st January
"Private Eye" of 7th and 21st January and 4th February
"The Week" on 5th February and on either 29th January or 12th February 2005.


Following the advert the letters below were published in Private Eye (issue 1124, 21st January).

From Hasmita Patel

The Transport-Watch advertisement may well have enriched you organ but has pulled off the remarkable feat or containing more misinterpretation, wishful thinking and inaccuracy per column inch than an Iraq dossier!

Given this, the claim made by Transport-Watch on its web site that it aims to become "the non-governmental point of reference for factual data dealing with transport" is surely at this present time a little over-ambitious!


From Andy Hamilton

I was distressed so see the full-page ad for Transport Watch UK, which wants to tarmac over Britain's railways to create a more efficient transport network. I would like to propose instead that Redland Drive, where the organisation is based - is converted to a railway line.

We have replied twice as follows but the copy is not to be published.

Hasmita Patel, issue 1124, says the Transport-Watch advert contains "more misrepresentation per column-inch than an Iraq dossier".  If she, and others, believe that then they should report us to the Advertising Standards Authority.  We would welcome any hearing there - confident that we would both vindicate all that we have said and, by proxy, demonstrate the scandal that the railway lobby is - a scandal that is perhaps the greatest civilian one in history.  In any event, all that Railtrack's immensely expensive team could do in the face of the similar facts that we brought to the Inquiry into the West Coast Main Line Modernisation Programme was to bluster - see the Closing Statements accessible from our web site.

Meanwhile Andy Hamilton is so distressed by our advertisement that he wants to punish us with a railway to our very door.  We protest - the punishment is too severe for it would bring our lives to a near standstill - illustrating, at a stroke, the paralysing inefficiency of rail compared with road transport.  Just imagine what would happen if the motorway and trunk road networks were paved with railway lines.

Shortened version
Hasmita Patel, issue 1124, says the Transport-Watch advert contains "more misrepresentation per column-inch than an Iraq dossier".  We comment, Railtrack's immensely expensive team overturned none of the similar facts that we brought to the Inquiry into the West Coast Main Line Modernisation Programme.  Instead it blustered  - see the Closing Statements in our web site.

Meanwhile Andy Hamilton wants to punish us with a railway to our very door. We protest - the punishment is too severe for it would bring our lives to a near standstill. Just imagine what would happen if the motorway and trunk road networks were paved with railway lines.
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