- Save jobs and conditions
- Cut fares
John Reid, Surrey Socialist Party and former RMT National Executive Committee member
Rail privatisation has been a disaster for the travelling public with rising ticket prices, increased delays and cuts to services. But it has brought huge profits to private companies!
Money for the bosses
Permanent management contracts for the various rail companies will have handed over £955 million from the taxpayer to company dividends by 2027.
Britain’s rail infrastructure owner Network Rail’s £561 billion debts are underwritten by the taxpayer. It spends more on interest on loans than it does on infrastructure and improving the rail network.
Three rolling stock companies control 88% of Britain’s trains and paid out £949 million of dividends in 2020 alone.
During the last 13 years of Tory-led governments we have seen privatised rail companies fail and be nationalised temporarily, only for the franchise to be sold on again. TransPennine Express is the latest dismal failure (see ‘Tories take over TransPennine Express’ at www.socialistparty.org.uk).
Chaos for commuters
While private companies are handed millions of pounds, passengers have seen fares rise by around 40% since 2010.
There is chaos in services, with cancellations and disruption caused by understaffing, ageing rail stock and poor signalling systems. This is due to decades of a lack of investment.
Around 50% of railway stations are unstaffed. The rail companies now want to close all ticket offices, slash maintenance and engineering jobs, and cut guards from trains; all of these measures would hit track and passenger safety.
Striking for our railways
Rail unions have been striking over the last year against cutbacks and to defend working conditions won over decades of struggle.
Private companies have made more than £300 million in profits since the government put them on new contracts when the Covid pandemic hit. And a further £300 million of taxpayers’ money was spent indemnifying companies so that they would not lose a penny during these strikes. The government has spent more fighting the strikes than it would have cost to settle them. The money handed over to companies, if given to rail workers, would amount to a 10.6% pay increase.
Nationalisation
The RMT rail union and the vast majority of the public want to see the rail system renationalised. Socialist Party members in the RMT and other unions call for the public ownership and integration of all sectors of transport under the democratic ownership and control of the working class, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need. To end all privatisation and to run services for need not profit.
We would reopen closed stations and lines, particularly in rural areas, fares would be massively reduced as part of a massively expanded, free to use, publicly owned transport system. This would take cars off the road and be a massive boost to improving the environment. A democratically run rail network would improve the wages and conditions of rail workers alongside the travelling experience of passengers.
