RMT restates public ownership call

The RMT has repeated its call for an end to private sector involvement in the operation of services on the East Coast Main Line, by staging a protest against LNER on its first day of operation on June 24.

Although wholly owned by the Department for Transport, LNER is being operated through an ‘Operator of Last Resort’ arrangement until a new public/ private East Coast Partnership begins in 2020.

RMT believes this is unacceptable, given the early end of Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) - it was just three years into an eight-year franchise before running into financial difficulties.

Following Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling’s announcement on May 16 that he would re-create LNER to take back control from VTEC ( RAIL 853), the Stagecoach and Virgin joint venture has subsequently become the third train operating company to bow out on the route, following the demise of GNER in 2007 and National Express in 2009.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “The protest in Edinburgh, coinciding with our AGM in the city, is sending out the clearest possible message that the fight for public ownership of our railways is stepping up a notch.

“If you want to see the failures of Britain’s privatised railway system writ large, then look no further than the ECML, where a succession of expensive corporate disasters has seen this crucial inter-city service lurch from crisis to crisis.

“What we need now is permanent public ownership and not some short-term lash-up as a holding operation before Chris Grayling gives another bunch of spivs and speculators a spin of the wheel.”