Barry: Railing against privatisation

Nov 18 2009 by Barry Gibson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE rail network took a big step into the future – and the past – a few days ago when the East Coast mainline was taken back into public hands.

The news that the line linking Yorkshire to Scotland and London has been re-nationalised will be welcomed by anyone with an ounce of sense.

More than a decade after the much-maligned – but now sadly missed – British Rail was abolished, the Government is once again running trains in this country.

For those of you who missed it, the line was taken off National Express after the company announced it could no longer pay for the franchise. For the next two years the Government will run the service which links Leeds to Edinburgh and London.

And then, for some unknown reason, the line will be handed back to the private sector so it can make another mess.

When will the Government learn? Private companies can’t run rail networks.

Look at all the world-class railways in the world – France, Germany, South Korea, Japan – and you will see systems entirely run by the public sector. Because only governments can take the long-term investment decisions needed to succeed.

Private companies, hectored by shareholders demanding jam today, don’t take the long-term view. They just hike up the fares and hope for the best.

It happened again this week, when the private companies proudly announced that next year’s average fare increase would be “only” 1.1%. But look behind the headline figure and you see that some passengers who commit the cardinal sin of buying a ticket on the day they travel will face a 15% hike next year.

The private rail companies are still at it, still ripping off the commuter while simultaneously troughing on government subsidies. Like I say, when will the Government learn?

I had an interesting conversation with Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman about the East Coast nationalisation last week.

When we spoke he was on his way to Wakefield to catch a train to London.

Mr Sheerman seemed more than happy that the East Coast mainline was being re-nationalised and in no mood to see it re-privatised in 2011. As a regular user of the line, the Labour man was scathing about what National Express had done to it.