Members of the RMT union have brought trains to a virtual standstill in many parts of the UK, but even without that few people would deny that the network is in a mess, with frequent delays and cancellations.

Despite that, a poorly performing rail operator like Avanti West Coast could afford to pay shareholders £11.5m dividends according to their last accounts.

Adrian Goldberg hears from Tom Haines Doran author of Derailed: How to fix Britain's broken railways 

Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.

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