State rail will fail

The Labour Party has confirmed what voters suspected and unions hoped: that they will bring the railways back into public ownership. Those with long memories may doubt whether this plan will “deliver from day one” of a Labour government, as shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh has claimed. Younger generations may wonder, on yet another week of strike action, how conditions could worsen much further.

It is too easily forgotten, however, that successive governments have been steadily nationalising our railways, seizing control of multiple operating companies and handing ever greater leverage to rail unions. This has not resulted in an improved service. Subsidies are nearly double what they were pre-covid. Labour’s promise of “no compensation” may appeal to its base, but could strip contractors of any incentive to improve their service in the time it takes for contracts to naturally run out. Once again, it is passengers who will suffer.

Privatisation in the 1990s led to an unprecedented boom in rail travel. In its early days, the franchise system saw notable successes, including the introduction of fast modern Pendolinos on the West Coast Main Line. After Britain’s rail tracks were returned to state ownership in 2002, however, waste, delays and mismanagement became endemic. The most publicised failings have largely been the fault of state-owned Network Rail and the Department for Transport, whose increasingly restrictive conditions forced out many private businesses.

As Aslef has this week displayed, unions will not hesitate to grind Britain to a halt in pursuit of higher pay and improved conditions. Renationalisation is not the panacea its advocates claim.