People and Business: Figures are off the Railtracks

WHO SAID there were lies, damned lies and statistics? Probably a railwayman in the new privatised era, if recent events are anything to go by.

Railtrack's much-vaunted 10-year Network Management Statement promised pounds 27bn of investment, but critics swiftly narrowed it down to just pounds 1.4bn of new money or pounds 140m a year.

One of the major losers was Rail Freight Group, which was offered very little in terms of copper-bottomed promises of new money. But the cover- sheet of a 30-page document from Rail Freight Group attacking Railtrack's plans, published today, scores an own-goal. Under the heading "Our six most important conclusions," it lists - you guessed it - just five.