CONTENTS

politics first | Corridors
A railway system with its
passengers at its heart
Andy McDonald, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and Labour
MP for Middlesbrough
Labour’s promise to bring the railways back into public
ownership is popular with the general public, with
poll after poll demonstrating that around two thirds
of the population support the idea. It is not difficult to
understand the high levels of public support for ending
the dysfunctional model of privatised rail.
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Quite simply, the privatisation of British
Rail was a rushed, botched job which had
more to do with ideology than any clear plan
for the railways, and the consequences were,
quite literally, disastrous, resulting in a series
of fatal accidents.
The last Labour Government cleaned up
much of this mess at a cost of several billion
pounds and delivered the safest railway
in Europe. We also invested more in the
railways, in real terms, than any previous
Government and won back public trust in
the railways – the foundation on which
all subsequent investment has been built.
But many of the other problems caused
by privatisation remained and continue to
plague commuters and taxpayers, alike.
Millions of us rely on the railways to get
into work every morning, but, alongside
the continual ratchet upwards in fares, too
many privatised rail companies have failed
to deliver the service passengers demand.
Southern Rail, in recent months, has been
a particular disgrace, with both passengers
and workers suffering at the hands of its
incompetent management.
The network of private and foreign stateowned
companies which operate passenger
services on Britain’s railways come together
in a confused, inefficient and jumbled network
that drives up the cost of improvement works,
complicates ticketing structures and extracts
eye-watering profits that could, instead, go
on improvements or keeping fares down.
The hit to the pockets of commuters stands
in stark contrast to the £222 million in
dividends paid to shareholders of private
train companies in the last year – an increase
of 21 per cent.
Britain is already the most expensive
country in Europe to travel by train in, with
rail fares haven risen by 25 per cent in the
last six years alone. And rail fares are not
just expensive – they are confusing, too,
often leaving passengers overpaying for their
journey and struggling to claim refunds they
are entitled to. As the Government are finding
out, it is proving far too difficult to make
basic changes to fares and ticketing under
our fragmented system.
Bringing the railways back in house as the
franchises expire is a cost-effective means to
take our transport system out of the hands of
the privateers and back under proper public
control. And it is effective: the East Coast
Mainline, placed in state ownership after
private operator National Express walked
away from the contract, rapidly established
a reputation as the best of our rail service
operators, delivering over £1 billion to
the Treasury, keeping fares down, holding
record passenger satisfaction and engaged
the workforce with unparalleled success.
It is baffling that the Tories did not take the
opportunity to build on that success; instead,
they pushed East Coast back out to private
operator Virgin. The success of East Coast
Mainline demonstrates a clear alternative to
the dysfunctional model of privatisation and,
as with the ongoing Southern Rail debacle,
shows a government clinging to a failed
model for purely ideological reasons – and
it is commuters who are being made to pay
the price.
It is no surprise that the common sense
call to bring the railways back into public
ownership, as pledged by Jeremy Corbyn,
remains popular with the electorate. We know
that reliable, modern, affordable transport is
essential to delivering productivity growth.
Trimming the fat of privatisation can unlock
funds to deliver cheaper fares for passengers,
with the TUC showing that the costs saved
from bringing expiring franchises from 2016
to 2020 would save £604 million a year,
enough to lower regulated fares by up to
10 per cent. In addition, ticketing structures
could be more easily simplified and savings
achieved through greater integration.
Our trains should run for the benefit of
passengers and the taxpayer, rather than
private or foreign state-owned companies,
as is presently the case. Labour have been
clear that we will put an end to Britain’s
rip-off railways, bringing rail back to
public ownership, with routes returning
to public ownership as private contracts
expire, meaning profits can be re-invested
to improve services and hold fares down.
Passengers, not profit, should be at the heart
of Britain’s railway.