Labour Manifesto 2017

TRANSPORT
Labour will invest in a modern,
integrated, accessible and
sustainable transport system
that is reliable and affordable.
Our transport systems illustrate
the abject failure of Tory policies:
relentless deregulation, privatisation
and fragmentation.
They say we get choice and
efficiency but the reality of their
transport privatisations has been
that services are less reliable, safety
is compromised, fares have risen,
ticketing has become complicated
and air quality has worsened.
On our railways, we pay some
of the highest fares in Europe
for increasingly unreliable and
overcrowded services.
The beneficiaries of public funding
siphoned off through transport
privatisations have been the
earnings of directors, dividends
for shareholders and the coffers
of overseas governments.
Labour will prioritise public service
over private profit. nd we will start
by bringing our railways back into
public ownership, as franchises
expire or, in other cases, with
franchise reviews or break clauses.
We will introduce a Public Ownership
of the Railways Bill to repeal the
Railways Act 1993 under which the
Conservatives privatised our railways.
In public ownership, we will deliver
real improvements for passengers
by capping fares, introducing free
wi-fi across the network, ensuring
safe staffing levels, ending the
expansion of driver only operations,
and introducing legal duties to
improve accessibility for people
with disabilities.
Across the country we will enable
councils to provide first-class bus
services by extending the powers to
re-regulate local bus services to all
areas that want them, and we will
support the creation of municipal bus
companies that are publicly run for
passengers not profit.
Under the Conservatives, bus fares
have risen and services have been
cut. Labour will introduce regulations
to designate and protect routes of
critical community value, including
those that serve local schools,
hospitals and isolated settlements in
rural areas.
A publicly owned railway system can
be the backbone of our plans for
integrated transport. It will be built
on the platform of Network Rail,
which we will retain whole, working
with the devolved administrations.
We will ensure new rolling stock is
publicly owned and will encourage
expansion of public freight services
90 FOR THE MANY NOT THE FEW