Don’t re-nationalise railways, insists ex-transport minister
RE-NATIONALISING the railways is not the answer to improving the country’s train service, according to a former Glasgow MP and Transport minister.
Tom Harris, a minister under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said instead of the railways being a disaster they were enjoying a renaissance and public ownership was not the answer.
The report, commissioned by Abellio, the ScotRail franchise holders, found the railways have been successful since British Rail.
It also found franchises have been an essential part of the renaissance by applying private sector disciplines, strategies and flexibility.
It concluded there should be more focus on delivering on passenger priorities, primary amongst which is value for money.
While often problems with signalling and track maintenance are laid at the door of train operating companies, like Abellio, it found a greater knowledge of the responsibilities within railway management is needed.
It said: “Government and industry should provide more clarity on the layers of responsibility so that the public knows with whom the fault lies when something goes wrong.”
Amid calls for public ownership, which is the Labour Party’s policy on rail, the report concluded: “Full nationalisation is not the only alternative structure to the status quo, but making a radical change on purely ideological grounds would ill serve customers.”
Mr Harris said: “When it comes to the railways, bad news is big news and good news is no news.
“Because of that, we’d be forgiven for thinking that our railways are a disaster, but this is manifestly not true. In fact, for the whole of this century we have seen a remarkable railway renaissance.
“Our polling research has shown that the public in general are complimentary about the performance of Scotland’s railways.
“However, there are problems, and those problems have led to some politically charged calls for blanket nationalisation.
“The Scottish Government should not ignore this, but also it should not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
“If it feels the need to change the franchise model, it should consider moving to a concession model where the government shoulders both profit and risk, but the private sector runs the service.”