Half of journeys on rail network are on foreign-owned services
SOME 50 per cent of all passenger journeys on Britain’s rail network will be on services owned by foreign countries after the new South West Trains franchise starts.
The equivalent of 863 million such trips were made last year, which was 50 per cent of total journeys, according to Press Association analysis.
Shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald called for the railways to be renationalised as he claimed it is “ludicrous” that foreign government-owned firms are invited to run UK services “in their own interests” but the British state “is banned from doing so”. He said: “With promised upgrades delayed or cancelled, punctuality at its worst for a decade and fares up 27 per cent since 2010, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the Tories to justify allowing private and foreign state-owned companies to take money out of the system.”
“When in public hands, the East Coast Mainline returned over £1bn to the Treasury, kept fares down, had record passenger satisfaction and had excellent industrial relations. We should be building on that success.” East Coast services were operated by a company under the control of the Department for Transport for five years when franchise holder National Express pulled out in November 2009.
London Overground is the busiest rail company fully or partly owned by foreign countries or governments, with 188 million journeys.