Could Great British Railways work?
NATIONALISED railways didn’t work before, so why does Labour think they will in future? Since privatisation we have had lots of investment; newer, faster and more comfortable trains; and new lines opened. The main problem is the strikes by greedy, too-powerful unions. Starmer will have a shock when the unions refuse to accept reasonable pay offers, just as they did when Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister. Appeasing them won’t work.
RogeR Fownes, Bromsgrove, worcs. A SIGNIFICANT proportion of the rail system is already nationalised, including almost all the tracks and other infrastructure, all passenger train services in Scotland and Wales and LNER, TransPennine, Northern and Southeastern in England.
It is understood that Labour’s policy is that all freight services will remain with private operators, as also will passenger services classed as openaccess operators, which currently includes Grand Central and Lumo, with others being considered.
The progression to the formation of Great British Railways, structured in an integrated form, must be preferable to the micro-management carried out by the Department for Transport with the present structure.
DAVID RANDON, wheldrake, n. Yorks.
LABOUR’S transport spokeswoman Louise Haigh suggests funding for the new Great British Railways will be provided by arranging deals on working practices.
Has she asked her paymasters, Mick Whelan and Mick Lynch, whether that’s OK with them?
DES MORGAN, swindon, wilts. LABOUR’S plan may be on the right track with voters but the militant rail unions will make sure it comes at an enormous cost to all taxpayers.
MICK HARGREAVES, wrexham.
NATIONALISING the railways will be an interesting job creation scheme, although not for the railways. There will be many more civil servants at the Department for Transport to ensure it can continue to micromanage rail and many more at the Treasury, where the real power lies, so the jackboot remains on the neck of the Transport Department. But that is all irrelevant because the railways will really be run by ASLEF and the NUR.
M. COHEN, Huntingdon, cambs.