If elected, the Labour party will bring the railways back into public ownership. Is that a good idea? Simon Wilson reports
What’s the plan?
Without once using the word “renationalisation”, Labour has confirmed its long-standing plan to take the whole of Britain’s passenger rail network back into public ownership within a first five-year term, if elected. It’s not going to do this in one big bang: it’s simply going to fold each remaining train operating company into state control as their franchises expire. In some cases, it will need to use break clauses to end contracts early. The result is that companies currently running trains on the British rail network, including First Group, Transport UK (formerly Abellio) and Go-Ahead, will largely be obliged to exit the rail industry. At the same time, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh announced some consumer-facing reforms. Labour promises automatic refunds for delays and cancellations; better integration of timetables, tickets and fares, including a “best ticket price” guarantee; digital season tickets across the network; and a new watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to make sure all this happens.
Sounds radical?
For all its radical veneer, Labour is mostly building on the Tories’ current policy. Both parties, for example, are committed to creating a new arms-length body called Great British Railways to run the network, staffed by rail-industry experts rather than Whitehall mandarins. Labour says its aim is to combine “the best of the private and public sector”, meaning the highly profitable rolling-stock leasing companies, set up to supply new trains to operators following privatisation, will remain in place. In any case, it’s hard to argue Labour’s plan constitutes a radical break when the renationalisation of the railways has been going on for years.
In what sense?
After only eight years, Railtrack, the private entity that owned the tracks and stations – but not the trains – was renationalised to create Network Rail (under Labour in 2002). Since 2010, successive Tory governments have in effect renationalised large parts of the network in a series of bailouts and takeovers of failing franchises. Almost 40% of passenger mainline rail travel in Britain is already on trains directly controlled by the state. And the rest of it is under indirect government control, following emergency measures at the start of the Covid pandemic in 20
