The Institute of Economic Affairs says this idea would save money and end ‘sardine-like’ conditions for commuters.

Sir, The brave suggestion by the Institute for Economic Affairs that it might be time for much of Britain’s main rail network to be replaced by a road-borne coach network (report, Feb 3) will, of course, draw intense fire from the ubiquitous rail lobby.

I felt the full force of this brigade’s firepower in 2003 when, as a keen, newly appointed rail minister, I volunteered publicly my belief that part of the problem with this country’s transport policy was that it was profoundly influenced by trainspotters.

As the sky darkened with incoming missiles, the officials at the ministry were very kind to me, as an indulgent uncle might be kind to a deranged nephew, before they resumed their full-time job of trying to persuade the Treasury to cough up vast amounts of taxpayers’ money to keep the railways running. I fear that their job description has not changed much since then.

Dr Kim Howells
Pontypridd

Sir, The suggestion by the Institute of Economic Affairs concerning conversion of our railway to bus lanes is not new. It was floated in the 1980s by Sir Alfred Sherman, who was associated with the same organisation.

There were many loopholes in the proposal. For example, railway tracks are often narrow, have tunnels and bridges, as well as very elaborate and expensive safety systems (which largely work). Furthermore, there is the issue about all the coaches arriving at a major terminal and how they are dispersed.

The present problems of the railway are caused by rapidly increasing traffic and decades of underinvestment. The complex nature of the organisation, riddled with expensive lawyers and financiers as a result of privatisation, is why it costs so much to rectify.

Lord Bradshaw
Lib Dem transport spokesman in the House of Lords and former general manager, British Rail Western Region

Sir, About 30 years ago a study was made of the feasibility of converting the railway between the Chilterns and London into a busway. The idea was not proceeded with for various reasons, not least of which was the problem of what to do with a large number of buses at the end of the journey; clearly disgorging them on to London’s crowded streets was not acceptable.

The Cambridge to St Ives busway does a good job, making use of a former railway track bed, but is not carrying anywhere near the sort of volumes of passengers which the Institute for Economic Affairs mentions. As a retired former busman I am well aware of the potential of busways, but moving large volumes of passengers on urban and interurban corridors is best left to railways, which manage it very well for most of the time.

David Wallace
Wiveliscombe, Somerset

Sir, John Chapman (letter, Feb 5) says that buses could be linked and then put back on railway tracks. With no linkage and steered by the drivers, express coaches using one lane of a road could offer 75,000 seats an hour. That’s 50 per cent more than the crushed peak-hour railway commuters who arrive at Waterloo in trains requiring four inbound tracks.

The coaches would motor at 60mph, with the journey time from Southampton, for example, similar to that by rail. Fares, though, could be halved or perhaps even quartered. Linking the vehicles electronically would vastly increase potential capacity, but putting them back on rails would cost a fortune and prevent any other vehicle from using the track.

The opportunity is overwhelming.

Paul Withrington
Director, Transport-Watch

Hang on, this idea of converting old railways to roads for express buses sounds eerily familiar…

Sir, As was pointed out on one of the previous occasions when the idea of converting railways to roads was mooted (Feb 3), in order to save on the enormous cost of drivers at one per vehicle, the buses could be joined together in batches of, say, ten or twelve and then, to add to operational efficiency, they could run on rails rather than having to be steered. The end result could be called a “railway”.

John Chapman

Hythe, Kent

Carmaker whose curvaceous Lister-Jaguar swept all before it on the racing circuits of the late Fifties until a tragic accident

Having built what was arguably the most successful racing car of the 1950s, Brian Lister turned his back on the sport at the height of his success when the other half of one of British motor racing’s most celebrated partnerships was killed while racing in one of his cars in 1958.

The Lister-Jaguar was virtually unbeatable on British circuits after its introduction in 1957 and the meteoric success that it brought to Lister’s small manufacturing plant near Cambridge caught the public’s imagination. Consistently outperforming bigger constructors, such as Aston Martin, Lister’s front-engined one-seater swept all before it. Affectionately known as “the knobbly” for its curved body work, it also made a star out of the driver Archie Scott Brown — a charismatic figure with a curled moustache who beat a severe disability which effectively rendered him partially lame and one-handed to climb to the top of the sport.

Scott Brown’s death after crashing a Lister-Jaguar during a race in Belgium in 1958 caused Lister to retire from the sport. Lister was particularly hurt by criticism that the Lister-Jaguar was unsafe. When asked about the car’s reputation for poor braking as he careered around corners, Scott Brown had responded, “I’ll carry on without them old boy”. Soon after Scott Brown was killed when he crashed at a corner while vying for the lead with his great American rival Masten Gregory. The car had burst into flames and Lister received further criticism that its ultra-light magnesium-alloy bodywork, which fitted snugly around the tubular ladder chassis, was inflammable.

An RAC investigation found no faults with the car, but Lister’s grief was such that he began to withdraw from the sport. However, a commercial version of the car went into production in 1958 with great success.

Brian Lister was born into an engineering family in 1926 and attended Perse school in Cambridge. His father’s business, George Lister & Sons, specialised in manufacturing torpedoes, and Brian was apprenticed there in 1942. He spent most of his spare time tinkering with car engines, starting with an MG, and emerging covered in grease when being called to dinner.

He developed his first racing car with an MG engine in 1954, entering it into a race in Snetterton and winning with Scott Brown behind the wheel. The successful entry of the small unheralded team put plenty of noses out of joint in the racing paddocks. Fellow drivers, who did not take kindly to the prospect of losing against a driver who they regarded with disdain rather than admiration because of his disability, complained that the Lister was a safety risk and Scott Brown’s licence was temporarily revoked.

However, Lister’s father was impressed at this early success and agreed to diversify the family firm into a racing team. When Jaguar decided that its D-type — which had won the Le Mans 24-hour race for three years in a row — needed replacing with a new model, its boss William Lyons donated the engines and gearboxes to Lister. Lyons believed that Lister could adapt the engine into a winning car and keep the Jaguar name in the forefront of racing and at little cost to Jaguar. It proved to be a masterstroke.

Lister was remembered as an unfailingly courteous man with a predilection for colourful bowties. He was described as diffident and could not have been more different than his flamboyant friend, Scott Brown. However, Lister was transformed into a different beast altogether with a drum kit in front of him, playing with his jazz band, the Downbeats.

He is survived by his wife Josephine Prest, and by their daughter. He sold the company in 1986 and the new owner Laurence Pearce revived the Lister-Jaguar marque with a new range of cars based on the concept of souping up already rather racy Jaguar XJS’s and giving them an eye-watering top speed of 200mph.

Lawrence Whittaker, managing director of Lister Cars, said: “Brian Lister was a wonderful man who was always incredibly modest about his amazing achievements. Whenever I met him, I was left with the lasting impression of his passion for British engineering.”

Brian Lister, owner of Lister Cars, was born on July 12, 1926. He died on December 16, 2014, aged 88

The Times 2 January 2015, Leo Lewis

Geely, the quirky Chinese carmaker that began life as a manufacturer of refrigerators, is poised to announce a new £150 million factory in Britain to produce the next generation of energy-efficient London taxis.

Plans for the plant, which have been under deliberation since late 2013 and have received heavy coaxing from the British government, are expected to be announced soon.

It is understood that Geely’s favoured location is Ansty Park, an industrial estate on the outskirts of Coventry seeking to establish itself as a home of technology and innovation. The site is also close to the existing headquarters of the Geely subsidiary Manganese Bronze Holdings, which, trading as The London Taxi Company, builds the famous black cabs but had to be rescued by Chinese investment two years ago.

A formal decision by the Chinese before May will come as a relief. Geely’s reported intention to invest heavily in UK manufacturing was touted as one of the prizes of David Cameron’s visit to China in December 2013 — a trip that broke more than 18 months of diplomatic frost between London and Beijing but was noticeably short on deals.

Since then, the Chinese company’s silence has become ominous, particularly as Geely’s profits have been hit hard by the Chinese slowdown, difficult export markets and, more recently, the plunge in the Russian currency.

In its eagerness to persuade Geely to come through with the investment, the UK is understood to have offered a selection of possible sites. Although Ansty remains favourite, Geely sources said that other options had not been ruled out.

The chief focus of the new factory will be the TX5, an upgraded “green” version of the classic London cab scheduled to enter the market in 2018.

The existing TX4 plant apparently is not up to the demands of the planned next generation of taxi, which will draw on some of the technologies acquired by Geely when it bought Volvo Cars.

Geely’s Hong Kong-listed shares have fallen by about 30 per cent over the past month, with most of the damage done in the past few days.

Li Shufu, the billionaire president of the company, warned last week that full-year net income would fall by 50 per cent on heavily falling sales volumes and unrealised losses on the tumbling rouble.