Railtrack tries to make ground

The Railtrack advertising campaign is an attempt to inform people of the progress being made in respect of investment in this country’s rail system. We will provide numerous specific examples of what is being done to regenerate the rail network and its 2,500 stations by the year 2001. BR under-invested for many years. Railtrack has a very big job to do and it is spending billions of pounds doing it. This can’t happen overnight.

To state that industry observers have doubts about the wisdom of Railtrack’s long-term marketing and public relations strategy and wonder if it could do more to explain its position, and then to ignore the fact that this campaign is designed to do just that, is disappointing. It is not appropriate to spend many millions on television when funds need to be spent on improving the rail network. It is reasonable to provide an efficient and cost- effective press campaign in order to inform as many people as possible about Railtrack’s progress.

Railtrack is accused of failing to inform people of what is happening and of doing the minimum to keep stakeholders – and the regulators – informed. This is nonsense. The advertising starts at the end of March when Railtrack is to publish the most detailed plans for the development of the network in decades.

Julian Lumley

Domino Creative Services

London W1

To have looked at the 2m advertising campaign through Domino while ignoring the problems Railtrack faces would have been poor journalism. Last week’s article was a thorough, balanced analysis of Railtrack’s problems – including the Health & Safety Executive’s concerns over track safety and public perceptions of Railtrack’s role – in the context of the new advertising campaign. Rail track may not like what has been said about it recently, but it needs to address its fundamental problems rather than complain when journalists highlight them – Editor.