The Campaign for Public Ownership welcomes the news that the government has refused to re-negotiate its contract with failed privateer National Express and is to take the East Coast railway line into public ownership. But the CPO believes that rather than being a one-off emergency measure, the decision to nationalise the East Coast Line should be the first step in the complete renationalisation of the entire network.
Is there anyone- outside the extreme neoliberal ideologues of the Adam Smith Institute- and the directors and shareholders of the profiteering rail companies- who still thinks railway privatisation has been a good idea? The government has been paying over four times more in subsidies to the private train operators than the much-maligned British Rail received in its final years. And for that the travelling public has received a far worse service.
Renationalising the railways would save the government and the British taxpayer
a small fortune. It would also be a very popular move by the government, opinion polls show that over 70% of the public support renationalisation.
The Campaign for Public Ownership calls for the immediate renationalisation of Britain’s railways and the reintroduction of a simple, easy to understand distance-based pricing system.
Thirteen years on from the disastrous privatisation of British Rail, it’s time to call an end to Britain’s Great Train Robbery.
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1 comment:
You forgot to mention that when the railways were under public ownership the trains were actually on time, and you could usually find a seat on one.
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