Nationalisation
Election manifestos: nationalisation for Labour; Rail Ombudsman for Conservatives; a customer focus for Lib Dems.
LABOUR has placed no timeframe on its plans to bring passenger rail franchises into public ownership as they expire, and has given no indication of the potential cost.
Its plans were first reported in detail in RAIL 810, and re-emerged on May 16 in the party’s manifesto. A spokesman said: “We will create a new dynamic public operator where profits currently being made by private operators would be reinvested into keeping fares down and improving the quality of service.”
While there are no plans to nationalise the rolling stock leasing companies that own the majority of rolling stock in the UK, Labour says it “will ensure new rolling stock is publicly owned”, adding: “We will facilitate British procurements, including steel, whenever possible.”
Labour defended its record on railways while in government from 1997 to 2010, saying that it invested more in the railways in real terms than any other government, as well as replacing Railtrack with Network Rail.
“Now the Tories are trying to privatise Network Rail by the back door. Labour is clear we will keep Network Rail in public hands,” it told RAIL.
It also pointed out that it originally unveiled plans for High Speed 2 and Crossrail 2, which will both receive support from Labour should it win the General Election. It will also deliver what it calls a ‘Crossrail for the North’ linking Liverpool with Hull and Newcastle, and that it “would commit to reversing the decades of underinvestment in Northern transport infrastructure that has undermined the economic potential of the north of England”.
HS2 will be extended to Scotland and linked with other routes, including a freight terminal in County Durham. Labour promises to build a new Brighton Main Line and extend electrification across the whole country, including to Wales and the South West. The manifesto also pledges to consult with communities to reopen branch lines.
Many infrastructure projects will be funded by a new National Transformation Fund which will invest £250 billion over ten years
on rail, power, broadband and other infrastructure projects.
There are also no plans to take the privately owned freight operators into government hands (Direct Rail Services is already publicly owned), but Labour added: “We will encourage expansion of public freight services in a publicly owned railway that will leave our roads freer of traffic and our air cleaner.”
The party also attacked the record of the Conservative Government, claiming that rail fares have “rocketed” by 27% (a figure it says is three times faster than wages growth), with some season ticket prices rising by more than 40%. “Commuters were always told that higher fares would fund investment, but vital projects have been delayed for years and passengers are paying ever more to travel on increasingly overcrowded and unreliable trains,” the spokesman said.