{"id":31246,"date":"2024-04-26T17:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T07:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=31246"},"modified":"2024-04-26T17:38:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T07:38:08","slug":"labour-pledges-to-renationalise-railways-if-elected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=31246","title":{"rendered":"Labour pledges to renationalise railways if elected"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Labour Party will renationalise the railways if elected, says the shadow transport secretary.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Manning\/PA Wire<\/em><\/p>\n

In an announcement at the Trainline headquarters in London, the shadow secretary Louise Haigh said that \u201ctoday\u2019s broken model simply doesn\u2019t work\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Haigh said a Labour government would expect to transfer the 10 remaining privately run rail networks to public ownership \u201cwell within the first term\u201d by folding existing private passenger rail contracts into a new body as they expire.<\/p>\n

The shadow transport secretary said the UK deserves \u201cto be proud\u201d of its rail legacy, but that \u201cunder the Conservatives, our railways have become a symbol of national decline \u2013 of a country that no longer works, and a Government with no plan to fix it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCancellations are at record highs, fares have risen almost twice as fast as wages since 2010, and strikes are costing \u00a325 million a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Haigh said the plan was \u201cfully costed\u201d, and that the taxpayer would save \u00a32.2 billion annually, but said she did not have agreement from shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves that all of those savings could be invested back into the railways.<\/p>\n

The Government published its own proposals for rail reform in a draft Bill in February, include the creation of Great British Railways (GBR), a new public sector body to hold responsibility for rail infrastructure and awarding contracts to operate trains.<\/p>\n

A Labour government would create a publicly owned version of GBR led by rail experts rather than Whitehall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will establish Great British Railways \u2013 a single, directing mind to control our railways in the passenger interest,\u201d Ms Haigh said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we are keeping the name. I\u2019m afraid I was overruled on calling it Rail Britannia,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

The shadow transport secretary said it was Labour\u2019s ambition to make fares more affordable.<\/p>\n

Ms Haigh said: \u201cI can\u2019t today set out that we will lower fares, not least because they are incredibly complex and regulation needs reform as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have said that we will simplify them, that we will make them more accessible, more transparent and more trustworthy for passengers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour also plans to establish a watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to hold GBR to account.<\/p>\n

The Government estimated in its 2021 reform plan that it could save \u00a31.5 billion annually after five years by ending inefficiency and fragmentation.<\/p>\n

Labour says, citing its own analysis, that transitioning to public ownership could save money by cutting out franchise bidding costs, reducing the duplication of resources and lessening friction between operators.<\/p>\n

The party also plans to bring in automatic delay and cancellation refunds, make digital season tickets available on all networks, and make timetables, tickets and fares more integrated.<\/p>\n

It also proposes moving mobile service on trains towards 5G, improving the integration of rail travel with bus and cycle hire services and introducing a best-price guarantee.<\/p>\n

However, a minister has claimed that Labour\u2019s plans are unfunded and leave questions open about how much rail renationalisation will cost taxpayers.<\/p>\n

Defence minister James Cartlidge told Sky News: \u201cPrivatisation led to a doubling of the number of people using our railways. It has been a significant success story, huge investment from the private sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as I said, if that investment hadn\u2019t come from the private sector it has to come from somewhere, and it would have to come ultimately from taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is the key question about this policy: How much is it going to cost taxpayers? At the moment it is unfunded.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government\u2019s reform plans were based on recommendations from a review carried out by former British Airways chief executive Keith Williams.<\/p>\n

Mr Williams said of Labour\u2019s plans: \u201cI welcome Labour\u2019s intention, if they are elected, to take forward the substance of my recommendations to deliver a better railway for passengers and freight by creating a rail body with an integrated profit and loss account, at arm\u2019s length from government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: \u201cWe have seen more positivity in this stunning Labour Party vision for rail than anything at any time from the Tories during their failed privatisation and subsequent incoherent rail reform programme.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Labour commitment delivers for the economy, for the taxpayer, for passengers, and for staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, said: \u201cLabour\u2019s commitment to bring the train operating companies into a new unified and publicly owned rail network is in the best interests of railway workers, passengers and the taxpayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis announcement however should be a first step to completely integrating all of our railway into public ownership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs\u2019 Association (TSSA), said: \u201cRail nationalisation will improve services, enhance safety, and prioritise the needs of passengers and workers alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy bringing the rail network back into public ownership, we can ensure that profits are reinvested into improving infrastructure, upgrading rolling stock, and enhancing workforce conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Bagnall, chief executive at Rail Partners, an industry group of train operators and freight groups, said: \u201cTrain companies agree that change is needed for the railways, but nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rail minister Huw Merriman criticised Labour\u2019s plans, claiming only the Tories had \u201ca plan to continue investing record amounts in our rail network\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cLabour have confirmed they would push forward with their pointless, unfunded rail nationalisation that will do nothing to improve train reliability or affordability for passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like their unfunded \u00a328 billion-a-year decarbonisation promise, they don\u2019t have a plan to pay for the bill attached to their rail nationalisation. Without a plan to pay for this, it means one thing: taxes will rise on hard-working people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s plans would still leave a role for the private sector on Britain\u2019s railways.<\/p>\n

Open access operators, such as Hull Trains and Lumo, will be able to continue to compete to improve the offer to passengers, the party said.<\/p>\n

Labour also hopes to \u201ccrowd in\u201d private investment to stimulate innovation in the rail sector.<\/p>\n

SNP transport spokesman Gavin Newlands said: \u201cThis is just the latest in a long list of U-turns from Sir Keir Starmer, this time on his commitment to nationalise the railways.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of putting the national railway service in the hands of the people, as the SNP Scottish Government have done, Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s Labour Party will instead increase private investment into another public service, just like their plans for the NHS.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Labour Party will renationalise the railways if elected, says the shadow transport secretary. James Manning\/PA Wire In an announcement at the Trainline headquarters in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":31247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,387,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-railways","category-scotlands-railway","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}