Our Power Lunch with George Muir - head of Association of Train Operating Companies, which represents the firms like Virgin who run Britain's trains - coincided with the Queen's Speech, which unveiled a new government bill to 'streamline rail regulation'.

This means scrapping the haughty Strategic Rail Authority, which this same government created with great fanfare and hullabaloo just a few years ago. It also means that more decision-making will be done by civil servants in the Department for Transport.

This is even worse than the awful days of the nationalized British Rail. At least the BR board had a measure of independence from government. But now, ministers and officials will be calling the shots. Unfortunately, that means more things will be decided for short-term political convenience rather than long-term investment and improvement. It means more central control. It means more services are run to fit in with some abstract management model rather than what local passengers and managers know is needed. Look forward to the same old under-investment - but worse.