Four problems that Britain’s crisis-hit railway must solve to survive

Travellers and staff at King’s Cross during a strike day last summer. The rail minister has called for the industry to ‘throw its arms round the workforce’. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

What do Britain’s railways need to do to get back on track? In a brief interval between strikes, the RMT’s Mick Lynch was asked by MPs whether industrial action was damaging rail. The union leader answered: “What about the days when we’re not on strike, when it’s absolutely useless as well?”

Industry bosses also acknowledge, in less blunt language, that rail needs fixing.