£1.2bn great train waddery
FURY OVER MONSTER DIVIDENDS
ELECTION: RAIL PAYOUT ROW
A £1.2BILLION payout to rail shareholders was yesterday likened to the Great Train Robbery as the race for No10 stepped up a gear.
The huge sums were paid out over the past five years despite rail firms receiving £5billion a year in taxpayer subsidies.
And unions said it shows just how much could be ploughed back in if the rail industry was nationalised under Jeremy Corbyn and a Labour government.
The Tories privatised rail in the 1990s, and bringing it back under public control is a key election issue. The dividends payout is the equivalent of a Great Train Robbery every three months.
Ronnie Biggs’ gang stole £2.6million in 1963 – or £53million in today’s money.
The payouts rub salt into the wounds of passengers facing a 2.7 per cent fares rise in the New Year.
Analysis by the TUC shows fares have risen 46 per cent in a decade but wages are up 23 per cent.
TUC General Secretary
Frances O’grady said:
“The Great Train Robbery is peanuts compared to the Great Privatisation Scam.
We can’t go on being fleeced. Let’s use our votes to fix the railways and put them back in public hands.”
Mr Corbyn wants to bring rail, the Royal Mail, energy companies, water, the National Grid and BT’S broadband arm back into public ownership by 2025.
It would cost little to nationalise the rail-operating companies. Mr Corbyn could simply wait for franchises to run out and let Whitehall take over. Under Labour, HS2 will be built and extended into Scotland and a “Crossrail for the North” will vastly improve services in poorly-served regions. If the Tories win the election, they say they will reopen some of the 3,000 lines they closed in the 1960s, while the Lib Dems pledge to ban diesel trains by 2034.
Meanwhile, a plan for 3,000 miles of new cycle routes is planned by Labour to help combat climate change. A “healthy streets” programme unveiled today will give wider access to bicycles and grants for e-bikes.
Shadow Transport Secretary Andy Mcdonald said: “We could cut up to one third of carbon emissions and reduce the obesity and diabetes that is threatening to overwhelm the NHS.”