LABOUR leader Ed Miliband is reported to be resisting pressure from trade unions to renationalise the rail industry. The Labour leadership is said to be moving towards a hybrid system, which would allow state-run bodies in Britain to bid for franchises or 'operating contracts'.
When the railways were being privatised in the 1990s, the Conservative Government of the day refused to allow the British Railways Board to bid for franchises in competition with private sector bidders, and the BRB ceased to be a train operator in 1997.
Rail policy will be discussed by Labour's National Policy Forum this weekend. The RMT and other unions want the present franchises to be the last, simply ending painlessly when the present contracts run out and therefore achieving gradual renationalisation. However, new contracts awarded over the past couple of months include a new 15-year franchise for National Express to operate Essex Thameside (c2c).
East Coast has been the focus of much of the lobbying. The Department for Transport is progressing with the letting process with the intention of handing over the operation to a private sector company before next May's general election, but the return of East Coast to the private sector is being resisted vigorously by unions.
The RMT has also been concerned that the East Coast service specification could mean fewer services from Newcastle and local stations in Northumbria.
Earlier this year, RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said; “It is scandalous that the Government are prepared to give the private sector vultures hovering over the East Coast route a green light to rip up the timetable and to leave passengers and communities cut-off and stranded in the name of private greed and private profit.
“The campaign to stop Ministers from wrecking the highly-successful, publicly-operated East Coast services in order to suit their own ideology, and to line the pockets of their mates in big-business, will be stepped up. After two previous private sector failures we have no intention of allowing a third reckless gamble on the East Coast that would not only destroy the best-performing rail operation anywhere in Britain but also leave whole communities without proper transport links.”