Despite what might seem like a crushing Commons majority of 450-50 in the Commons last night in favour of HS2, the whole project is very far from settled. There are good reasons for this. One is that the Commons, like a local planning authority, is faced with a single choice – take it or leave […]
Posts under ‘Transport’
Living where privatised railways mean subsidising foreign state-run services
Feb 26th, 2014 by Dan McCurry.The railway that passes our constituency Labour party office in Bethnal Green and Bow is owned by Abellio, the Dutch state railway company. Am I alone in thinking this is somewhat surreal? We supposedly put these franchises out to tender because we wanted the private sector to provide their management know-how. It turns out that […]
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The battle to keep ticket offices open on the London Underground
Jan 24th, 2014 by Newsdesk.In the next two weeks, members of rail unions RMT and the TSSA are planning two 48-hour strikes, from noon on 4 February and again from 11 February. This video sets out the background: the threats to London Underground ticket offices and staff, and, in the longer run, a fully automated underground system including driverless trains, no-one […]
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Boris Island is a non-starter at £50bn+, but is he wrong about hubs too?
Jan 3rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.The whole argument about another airport runway for London is based on the idea that the future lies with big national hubs, and of course Heathrow argues that on that basis the extra airport runway should obviously be provided for Heathrow. They argue that 70% of all long-haul services to and from Britain go to […]
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Heathrow expansion is wrong on all counts
Dec 20th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The commission headed by Sir Howard Davies, an ex-President of the CBI, has turned out a predictable waste of money. Governments usually set up Commissions of Inquiry, not to solicit seeds of wisdom, but to try to resolve a political impasse. The Davies Commission was one such, it has failed in its purpose, and said […]
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Talking Tosh on public ownership – the speech of the week
Sep 26th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.“Talking Tosh”, as Billy Hayes (moving the Communication Workers Union motion against privatising Royal Mail) said immediately after this outstanding speech, has acquired an entirely new meaning. Tosh McDonald, Vice-President of train drivers’ union ASLEF, received a much deserved standing ovation for an off-the-cuff contribution, seconding a motion in support of the public ownership of the […]
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Conference report: Housing and transport
Sep 26th, 2013 by Gaye Johnson.Before launching into a report of the Housing and Transport policy debates held on the morning of the 24th of September, two issues of Party democracy which arose before them should be mentioned. As usual the establishment Candidates swept the board in the Conference Arrangements Committee elections. The victors include Heidi Alexander and Tom Blenkinsop […]
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The false logic of the privatisation of the East Coast mainline
Mar 29th, 2013 by Michael Burke.The Coalition government has announced its intention to privatise the East Coast mainline rail network. The network was nationalised 3 years ago when the previous private operators discontinued their franchise because they could not make a profit. The re-privatisation of the East Coast mainline highlights a key fallacy of the current government’s failed economic policy. […]
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There’s something very fishy about this West Coast Mainline fiasco.
Oct 5th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The explanation offered by the Transport Department, in McLoughlin’s letter to MPs, is that “these flaws (found by officials only when under the threat of a judicial review from Branson, but significantly not before) stem from the way the level of risk in the bids was evaluated. Mistakes were made in the way in which […]
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Why the economic case for a third runway at Heathrow still won’t fly
Sep 6th, 2012 by Ann Pettifor.UK aviation makes up greater share of UK contribution to climate change than elsewhere. The world’s climate is changing rapidly (despite the army of powerful self-interested deniers), and we are experiencing more and more extreme weather events. Ironically, on the day the aviation industry launched a sophisticated, co-ordinated lobbying campaign for a third runway, scientists announced a record Arctic […]
