A ONE-WAY TICKET TO THE 1970s
After the airport they can’t sell, the ferries they can’t build and the road bridge that shuts in winter, SNP nationalises ScotRail...
SCOTLAND risks being dragged back 50 years to a nationalised railway ‘shambles’ after SNP ministers announced they will take control of ScotRail.
The state takeover announced yesterday means the nation’s trains will return to the public sector next year.
current operator Abellio will be replaced by an ‘arm’s-length’ company set up to take control when the dutch firm’s franchise comes to an end in March 2022.
It will be the first time Scotland’s trains have been run by the state since British Rail was privatised in the 1990s. But the move led to fears the country will be dragged back to the ‘madness’ of the 1970s. Tom Harris, a
former Labour transport minister, said that nationalising the railway ‘will please a lot of people on the Left but it’s just ideological’.
He added: ‘It will change nothing if the only change is into the public sector – you need investment as well.
‘A lot of people have a rose-tinted view of the past on British Rail and a lot of people calling for public ownership weren’t around back then. It was a shambles and we don’t want to get back to that. It was starved of investment, the rolling stock was filthy and the service was appalling.’
British Rail was privatised following the 1993 Railways Act, and no public sector body has since been allowed to bid for rail services – although East Coast trains was publicly-owned temporarily after an issue with previous operator National Express.
Transport Secretary Michael Matheson told MSPs: ‘I have repeatedly
‘Rose-tinted view of British Rail’
stated the current franchising system is no longer fit for purpose.
‘Following a detailed assessment process and given the uncertainty caused by Covid-19, alongside the continuing delays to the UK Government White Paper on rail reform, I have decided that it would not be appropriate to award a franchise agreement to any party at this time, either through a competition or a direct award.
‘That’s why I have confirmed that, from the expiry of the current franchise, ScotRail services will be provided in public hands through a company wholly owned and controlled by the Scottish Government – in line with our operator of last resort duty.
‘ScotRail staff will transfer to the new Governmentowned entity, with their terms and conditions protected. This approach will provide a stable platform for ScotRail services and certainty for passengers and staff.’
Under British Rail, the total numbers of journeys taken by train plunged from one billion in 1948 to 590million in the early 1990s.
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: ‘The SNP Government must be entirely honest about how much this will cost taxpayers and be clear about what demonstrable benefits it is expected to bring to passengers. History tells us that nationalising certain industries is rarely a silver bullet and can in fact turn out to be a costly mistake.
‘What none of us wants is a return to the madness of the 1970s, when mass nationalisation brought the country to its knees. Innovative and competitive private enterprise fuels our economy and in many sectors it simply cannot be emulated by government.’
Mr Matheson said Transport Scotland had been preparing over the past year to ensure the ‘operator of last resort’ arrangement is ‘ready to be deployed’, but could not say how long this would continue.
SNP ministers previously bought Prestwick Airport for £1 then had to prop it up with £40million of loans. They also took control of the Ferguson Marine shipyard after a dispute with one of its quangos about a project to build two ferries led to the collapse of the yard’s owner.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers want a firstclass rail service, not one bogged down by slow and inefficient government.’