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Originally Posted by BBKing
Rolling stock procurement was always a nightmare under BR due to the long memories at the Treasury of the amount of money wasted in the 50s building steam engines and lots of small, early, untested diesels. After that they weren't really allowed to spend what they wanted, we were lucky to get the HST (being a cheap stopgap before widespread electrification that never came).
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If I remember what I read in Private Eye correctly, another part of the problem is that for large capital investment projects, the Treasury will give a loan to a state-run organisation. The interest on this loan is supposed to be set slightly higher than the average rate that a bank would use (the idea being that the Bank of England wants more money back than it would get if it merely invested the money in a bank). The problem came because whenever BR wanted money, they would be charged two or three times the average rate.
I should stress though, I read the above in Private Eye over ten years ago, so I could be wrong (the original article could be wrong, or I could be remembering it wrong).