Any State But Our Own

Luke James writes:

Rail union RMT condemned the government's flawed transport policy today which sees Britain's rail passengers forking out massive fares to travel on ageing trains in order to subsidise state-owned railways in Europe. 

Figures compiled by the union show that a staggering 60 per cent of Britain's rail network is run by German, French and Belgian state-owned companies. German state rail operator Duetsche Bahn runs almost a quarter of services in Britain while ploughing cash coughed-up by British passengers into its own nationalised railways. French and Belgian state companies run another six lines across the south of England, and connections to Heathrow airport are part-owned by the governments of Singapore, China and Qatar.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The hard truth is that the British public are paying the highest fares in Europe to travel on crowded and ageing trains in order to subsidise railways in Germany and other parts of the continent. RMT stands shoulder to shoulder with our European colleagues fighting to keep their railways in public hands but what a nonsense it is that our own government is denying us the same benefits of lower costs and increased investment that the public ownership so clearly brings."

The East Coast mainline remains the only railway line run and owned by the British state. It has the highest satisfaction rate of any British railway and has put over £800 million into the public purse since National Express dumped its contract three years ago.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, Tory Rail Minister Simon Burns insisted that privatisation "has been a force for good in the story of Britain's railways." He said the rail sell-off had made Britain's network the "most improved in Europe" and claimed continued privatisation would "drive down the cost or running the railways."

But Mr Crow was clear that his union's research "blows apart the whole government case" for privatisation, especially of the East Coast mainline. "What they are actually saying is that any state can run our railways as long as it isn't the British state," he said. Green MP Caroline Lucas agreed the union's figures "expose a huge flaw in the government's argument that our railways must be privately operated to be effective."

She said the "perverse situation is denying taxpayers and rail passengers savings" and is similar to how "France's state-owned energy company EDF control and profit from the UK's nuclear programme." Ms Lucas will this week launch a parliamentary campaign for rail renationalisation and RMT's research could win her Bill more backing.

Rail expert Christian Wolmer told the Morning Star support for renationalisation was becoming "more mainstream in the Labour Party." 

It always was. The only problem was at the top.