Railways: Changing the driver  Warren Buffett and the British
government have something in common. Both are taking over a
railway. The American investment wizard has spent $26bn on the
Burlington Northern while the Department for Transport is being
landed with the East Coast mainline. It is not clear who has got
the better deal.  Back in the days when British Rail ran trains,
politicians, paradoxically, did not have much to do with the
railways. The taxpayer owned the tracks, but managers did not
take kindly to being told when trains should run, or where they
should stop, or how much tickets should cost. The unintended
consequence of privatisation was that the state suddenly found
itself in control of all these things, issuing rail operators
with instructions which they must follow in return for
franchises, subsidising them and bailing them out when they run
into trouble. From midnight tomorrow, on the East Coast
mainline, this control will go further; the route is being
handed back to the state by its cash-s