Labour has pledged to will sweep away the ‘broken model’ of privatatised railways and bring operators into public ownership as their contracts expire.
In a speech setting out what she called ‘the biggest reform of our railways for a generation’, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh confirmed that if the party wins power it will take forward the current Government’s plan to establish Great British Railways – ‘a single, directing mind to control our railways in the passenger interest’.
Ms Haigh added that Labour will will deliver simplified fares and ticketing, including a Best Fare Guarantee across the network, and extend digital season tickets and automatic delay repay.
She said: ‘And we will create a tough new Passenger Watchdog that will hold Great British Railways to account on behalf of the passenger, both on performance and on the quality of the service. Because we believe that customer experience matters and it matters to growing our railways.’
Ms Haigh set out two stages to the reforms she proposed.
Under step one a Labour government would instruct the Department for Transport, Network Rail, the Rail Delivery Group, and the operator of last resort to work together from day one to create a ‘shadow’ Great British Railways.
Step two will see the primary legislation needed to formally establish Great British Railways as an arm’s length body.
She added: ‘Every five years, the Secretary of State will issue a long-term strategy, which will set out how the railway should deliver against clear passenger objectives.
‘And Great British Railways will be incentivised to grow the number of people using rail and the revenues from it.’
Andy Bagnall, chief executive of Rail Partners, which represents the train companies whose contracts Labour would not renew, said they agree that change is needed, ‘but nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs over time’.
He said: ‘Creating a thriving railway for customers and taxpayers does not have to be an ideological choice between a monopoly railway in public hands and one that delivers private investment and innovation through franchising.’
The RMT union said Labour's commitment to bring the train companies into a new unified and publicly owned rail network ‘is in the best interests of railway workers, passengers and the taxpayer’.
General secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘We strongly welcome these bold steps to fix 14 years of Tory mismanagement of our privatised railways and Labour's promise to complete a transition to public ownership within its first term in office.’
