Tagged with Railways

Publicly owned railways, not just right but popular

44-takingtrain-gt(1)As the National Policy Forum in Milton Keynes draws nearer, all eyes are on Labour’s policy formation process. Left Futures has discussed bringing back rail into public ownership before. But it is worth returning to the subject because it illustrates everything that is wrong about the way that our party currently makes policy.

We know that renationalising the railways is popular. Polling by YouGov consistently show that two in three voters support it. I know it’s popular because it happens to be the only subject that I have ever been commissioned to write about by the Sunday Express! It was during the 2010 leadership campaign, they knew that I was the only leadership candidate who supported it and they approached me for an article explaining that they knew it was something their readers were keen on. The fact that we now have the highest train fares in Western Europe has further helped to harden attitudes against the current arrangements. Continue reading →

Why won’t Ed Balls nationalise the railways?

19nwxdIf you were to glance at this headline, you might think Labour is tearing itself apart over rail renationalisation. It isn’t, but that the bulk of members and supporters think the rail should be taken back into public ownership reflects its popularity in the wider population. Pretty consistently, over half of the electorate would like to see this happen, with just 20% content with the current set up. Apart from Tories who are evenly pro- and anti-, voters for Labour, the LibDems, and UKIP notch up big majorities in favour. Continue reading →

Public ownership: the solution to rail misery

rail trackThe following letter appeared in the Observer today calling for public ownership of the railways. It has been signed by 31 Labour candidates in target seats who represent a broad spectrum of political views across the party. We reproduce it in full here. 

Rail fares in Britain are contributing to the cost-of-living crisis, with season tickets now the largest monthly expense for many people, costing even more than the mortgage or rent (“Cautious or bold: which path will Miliband take to election?“, News).

Just as Labour has pledged to freeze energy bills and reset the market to secure a better deal for customers, so it will be necessary to reform the rail industry to secure a better deal for passengers. Continue reading →

Living where privatised railways mean subsidising foreign state-run services

rail trackThe 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 this company is not private sector but is the state sector of Holland. So rather than having the British state running British railways, we have the Dutch state running British railways, because they outbid the private rail companies, presumably because they have better management know-how.

Meanwhile, we customers have to pay higher fares, in order that a profit can be made to subsidise the Dutch rail system. We might consider that the Dutch are very good at doing socialism, but they must consider us to be a bunch of mugs. Continue reading →

Talking Tosh on public ownership – the speech of the week

“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 railways from the Transport and Salaried Staffs Association. Continue reading →