John Prescott writes:
In four months’ time Ed Miliband will walk to the platform
at the Manchester Conference Centre to deliver his final speech as leader
before the general election.
Last conference he surprised us all with his popular pledge to freeze energy bills. This year he can go further to help solve the costs of living crisis. And I know how he can do it.
Sixty years ago the Manchester conference platform was a train platform – Manchester Central station. When I was a lad, I’d travel into it from Chester to go to my catering course in the city.
My father rose from being a porter at a railway station to a controller in regional railways.
Having worked in the failed private railways before the war, and then in part of the nationalised system, he saw many examples of profiteers exploiting public railway assets.
The Tory policy of “private good, public bad”, led to John Major rushing through rail privatisation.
Major broke our national railways into 25 private franchises on April 1 1994. How fitting he chose April Fools’ Day.
Once again the taxpayer was forced to fund the private railway system with subsidies DOUBLE the amount we gave to the publicly owned British Rail.
Now, 20 years on, rail fares have increased by a staggering 245 per cent, there’s a lack of long-term investment and a growing dissatisfaction with the privatised services.
Just look at the collapse of the West Coast franchise process and the East Coast debacle when National Express had to hand the route back to the Government.
The Department of Transport’s utter failure to renegotiate the West Coast contract has forced it to extend the existing franchise system to Virgin Rail.
The East Coast franchise was taken back into public ownership by Labour in 2009 because previous operators GNER and National Express claimed they couldn’t make it profitable.
But since being nationalised in 2009, East Coast Trains has achieved greater punctuality, provided a better service and given more than £800 million back to the taxpayer.
Compare that to the private train companies who last year handed out £200 million to their shareholders from the £4 billion subsidy we give them to run our railways.
The best value line was... yes, the nationalised East Coast Trains. That’s a good example of private bad, public good.
Another is the high-speed rail link.
When I became Transport Secretary in 1997, I not only inherited privatised rail franchises with long leases but a collapsing private European rail company called London Continental Railways.
It was supposed to build the high-speed route from the Channel Tunnel to London.
But in spite of being given £3 billion of assets by the Tories, they came to me asking for another £2billion to finish the route.
I said “no” and took them into public ownership. We refinanced and reformed it, completing the high-speed link on time and on budget.
It’s now a successful company, owning the High Speed Link to the Chunnel and 40 per cent of Eurostar.
And guess what? The Tories want to sell it back to the private sector.
Just as they did in 1993, the Tories are rushing to sell off East Coast Trains and our stake in Eurostar just before the election.
Ed Miliband says he wants to look at innovative ways of running our railway system.
Well, 19 of these 25 railway franchises will have to be renegotiated over the next five years.
So let each one lapse and pull them back into public ownership.
It won’t cost a penny in compensation, would allow us to invest, keep fares lower and prove enormously popular to the public – 66 per cent support it.
A commitment to renationalise rail franchises if elected would derail Tory plans to sell off the East Coast route in February 2015.
So at the conference Ed should say: “This is a station announcement. I’d like to apologise for the delay of rail renationalisation. But publicly-owned trains are just outside the station – if you vote Labour.”
Do that and it’ll be just the ticket for hard-pressed commuters and a cheap day return to Government for his party.
Last conference he surprised us all with his popular pledge to freeze energy bills. This year he can go further to help solve the costs of living crisis. And I know how he can do it.
Sixty years ago the Manchester conference platform was a train platform – Manchester Central station. When I was a lad, I’d travel into it from Chester to go to my catering course in the city.
My father rose from being a porter at a railway station to a controller in regional railways.
Having worked in the failed private railways before the war, and then in part of the nationalised system, he saw many examples of profiteers exploiting public railway assets.
The Tory policy of “private good, public bad”, led to John Major rushing through rail privatisation.
Major broke our national railways into 25 private franchises on April 1 1994. How fitting he chose April Fools’ Day.
Once again the taxpayer was forced to fund the private railway system with subsidies DOUBLE the amount we gave to the publicly owned British Rail.
Now, 20 years on, rail fares have increased by a staggering 245 per cent, there’s a lack of long-term investment and a growing dissatisfaction with the privatised services.
Just look at the collapse of the West Coast franchise process and the East Coast debacle when National Express had to hand the route back to the Government.
The Department of Transport’s utter failure to renegotiate the West Coast contract has forced it to extend the existing franchise system to Virgin Rail.
The East Coast franchise was taken back into public ownership by Labour in 2009 because previous operators GNER and National Express claimed they couldn’t make it profitable.
But since being nationalised in 2009, East Coast Trains has achieved greater punctuality, provided a better service and given more than £800 million back to the taxpayer.
Compare that to the private train companies who last year handed out £200 million to their shareholders from the £4 billion subsidy we give them to run our railways.
The best value line was... yes, the nationalised East Coast Trains. That’s a good example of private bad, public good.
Another is the high-speed rail link.
When I became Transport Secretary in 1997, I not only inherited privatised rail franchises with long leases but a collapsing private European rail company called London Continental Railways.
It was supposed to build the high-speed route from the Channel Tunnel to London.
But in spite of being given £3 billion of assets by the Tories, they came to me asking for another £2billion to finish the route.
I said “no” and took them into public ownership. We refinanced and reformed it, completing the high-speed link on time and on budget.
It’s now a successful company, owning the High Speed Link to the Chunnel and 40 per cent of Eurostar.
And guess what? The Tories want to sell it back to the private sector.
Just as they did in 1993, the Tories are rushing to sell off East Coast Trains and our stake in Eurostar just before the election.
Ed Miliband says he wants to look at innovative ways of running our railway system.
Well, 19 of these 25 railway franchises will have to be renegotiated over the next five years.
So let each one lapse and pull them back into public ownership.
It won’t cost a penny in compensation, would allow us to invest, keep fares lower and prove enormously popular to the public – 66 per cent support it.
A commitment to renationalise rail franchises if elected would derail Tory plans to sell off the East Coast route in February 2015.
So at the conference Ed should say: “This is a station announcement. I’d like to apologise for the delay of rail renationalisation. But publicly-owned trains are just outside the station – if you vote Labour.”
Do that and it’ll be just the ticket for hard-pressed commuters and a cheap day return to Government for his party.
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