'Keep the money on the track': Government urged to commit to public ownership of all new trains and carriages
In May, the UK’s largest train operator’s services were taken into public ownership
The train drivers’ union has called on the Government to commit to public ownership of all new trains and carriages.
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Aslef said evidence showed that this will provide value for money for the taxpayer, be better for the environment and create skilled jobs.
Trains are leased at “vast expense” from private rolling stock companies, said Aslef.
General secretary Dave Calfe said: “Huge sums of money are being taken out of our railway in profits and dividends by private rolling stock companies.
“A lot of it ends up in offshore tax havens.
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“We need to keep that money on the track, not send it offshore.
“We’re calling on the Government to commit to public ownership of all new rolling stock.”
In May, the UK’s largest train operator’s services were taken into public ownership.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander heralded the nationalisation of Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) as “a defining moment in our reform of the railway”.
Its four brands – Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express – cover large swathes of south-east England and beyond.
Ms Alexander said: “Bringing Britain’s largest train operator into public ownership is a defining moment in our reform of the railway.
“It gives us an opportunity to tackle the bread and butter issues people want, like driving down cancellations and improving the frequency of services to Gatwick Airport.
“As we set up Great British Railways (GBR), we’re putting passengers first, fixing what’s broken, and delivering a railway people can rely on.”
GBR will be a new public sector body bringing responsibility for tracks and trains under a single organisation for the first time since privatisation in the mid-1990s.
Legislation to create GBR was included in the King’s Speech.
GTR chief operating officer John Whitehurst said: “This is a railway that carries millions of people to work, to school, and to see friends and family every single day.
“We have spent the past year building the foundations, and bringing even deeper integration into our operations with Network Rail, with a single focus on what’s right for our customers and communities.
“That work means customers are already getting a railway that’s been transforming, and public ownership gives us the chance to go further to deliver the railway that millions of people across the South East deserve.”
In the mid-2010s, Southern’s passengers often suffered poor punctuality and reliability.
This particularly made headlines when it emerged that the 7.29am departure from Brighton to London Victoria failed to arrive on schedule at 8.35am during any of the 240 attempts in 2014.
The operator blamed this on high demand and congestion.
There was also a long-running industrial dispute between Southern and its drivers and conductors over staffing issues, including a row about who would operate train doors.
GTR became the fifth operator to enter public ownership under the Government, following c2c, Greater Anglia, South Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.
LNER, Northern, Southeastern and TransPennine Express were already nationalised when Labour came to power.
Chiltern Railways’ services will be next to transfer on September 20, followed by Great Western Railways on December 13.
The full public ownership programme is expected to be completed by the end of next year.