Daniel Green
Labour has pledged to protect ticket offices and staff if elected to power, as part of its planned radical overhaul of the rail network.
Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh unveiled the party’s proposals to bring Britain’s railways back into public ownership on Thursday at an event at Trainline HQ in central London. She vowed to crack down on delays and make the service better value for money for passengers.
She said that the overhaul, the “biggest in a generation”, would work to address the root causes of the “deepening crisis” in the rail network, with Labour’s “fully-costed” plans ensuring services are reliable, affordable, efficient, safe and accessible.
Under Labour’s plans, private operators will be brought into public ownership as contracts expire, with Great British Railways (GBR) controlling the nation’s railways in the interest of passengers. Haigh said that those operations would be folded into GBR “well within the first term” of a Labour government.
Haigh explained she would serve as “passenger-in-chief”, setting the strategy and objectives for the new state-owned operator and holding it to account.
She also promised to deliver simplified fares and ticketing, with a “best fare guarantee” across the rail network, as well as resetting industrial relations following a series of strikes under the Conservative government.
“Labour will take a consciously different approach: we will see our workforce as an asset, rather than a liability. We will work with them – and where there are disagreements, we will get around the table and work them out.”
The shadow cabinet member played down the idea of public ownership of water too.
While Labour has committed to nationalise the nation’s rail network by taking contracts in-house when they expire, Haigh said that nationalising water would cost the taxpayer “billions” because there is a different settlement with firms.
She said: “In a constrained fiscal environment, we don’t think that’s immediately the right priority.”
She instead highlighted Labour’s plans for “tough” regulation, legislation and the threat of criminal sanctions, tackling sewage and ensuring firms pay for infrastructure upgrades.
Despite the plans to implement nationalisation over the course of the first term of a Labour government, Haigh said she believes that Labour could enact basic improvements to services “from day one” and said customers would start to see changes “very early on” in Labour’s time in power.
While Haigh said she could not set out plans to lower fares, she did say Labour would simplify tickets for passengers to make them “more accessible, more transparent and more trustworthy”.
“Passengers have to contend with a dizzying array of different types of tickets and fares, which means they simply don’t trust they are getting the best value for the journey,” she said.
“We will deliver a best fare guarantee so they can always trust they are getting the lowest fare for their journey, just as people currently experience with Transport for London when they tap in and tap out of the system.”
Read our coverage of the 2024 local elections here.
Lou Haigh to reveal ‘roadmap’ for public ownership of railways within first term
Katie Neame
Labour’s Louise Haigh has pledged to deliver the “biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation” ahead of the launch of the party’s “thorough and detailed roadmap” to take Britain’s rail network into public ownership.
At a launch event in central London on Thursday as part of Labour’s local election campaign, the Shadow Transport Secretary is expected to say Labour would “expect” to complete nationalisation within the first term of a Labour government.
Ahead of the event, the party shared a series of endorsements its plans have received from industry experts and others, including the chair of a recent government review into the railways, who said he welcomed Labour’s intention to take forward the “substance” of his recommendations.
The plans were also welcomed by the leader of Labour-affiliated train drivers’ union ASLEF who said the “stunning Labour vision for rail” would deliver “for the economy, for the taxpayer, for passengers and for staff”.
Haigh: ‘Biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation’
Labour said in a press release it would deliver a Railways Act to establish Great British Railways and “enable the full benefits of a unified railway”. The party said its rail reforms would have six key objectives: delivering rail services that are “reliable, affordable, efficient, quality, accessible and safe”.
Speaking ahead of Thursday’s launch event, Haigh said: “Labour will deliver the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation. Whilst the Conservatives are content to let Britain’s broken railways fail passengers, Labour will deliver root-and-branch reform.
“After years of dysfunction and waste, our broken railways are unfit to meet the needs of modern Britain. Passengers and taxpayers alike are being failed, and our economy is being held back. Doing nothing is simply not an option.
“With Labour’s bold reforms, a publicly-owned railway will be single-mindedly focused on delivering for passengers and will be held to account on delivering reliable, safe, efficient, accessible, affordable and quality services.
“Labour’s detailed plans will get our railways back on track; driving up standards for passengers, bringing down costs for taxpayers, driving growth and getting Britain moving.”
Haigh to set out roadmap to deliver Great British Railways
Haigh will set out details of Labour’s plan to establish Great British Railways, pledging that her party would “put the passenger first” by delivering a best-price ticket guarantee and rolling out automatic delay repay and digital season tickets across the network within its first term in office.
The Labour frontbencher is expected to commit to the creation of a “powerful” new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, “to hold Great British Railways to account for passengers”.
She will promise to deliver “significant savings” to the taxpayer by “eliminating fragmentation, waste, bureaucracy and by stopping profits leaking out to private operators”, announcing that Great British Railways would be “unified, publicly-owned, accountable and arm’s length” and “led by rail experts, not Whitehall”.
Haigh is expected to announce that a Labour government would give devolved leaders, including metro mayors, a statutory role in the rail network.
She will also confirm that a Labour government would support “successful” open access and freight operators to continue to deliver, setting clear objectives and targets for passenger services and freight growth.
The Shadow Transport Secretary is likely to tell attendees that Labour would “expect” to complete the transition to public ownership within its first term, by folding existing private passenger rail contracts into the new body as they expire, without the taxpayer paying compensation costs.
Labour’s plans for the freight sector and train manufacturing
Labour said it will also announce plans on Thursday to harness the “huge economic potential” of rail freight and deliver a long-term strategy for train manufacturing.
It said its proposals would deliver more certainty for investors and manufacturers to plan for the long-term in rail manufacturing, as well as crowd in private investment to stimulate innovation. The plans will include a statutory duty on Great British Railways to enable the growth of rail freight.
Rail freight would remain within the private sector under a Labour government, but targets for increasing the use of rail freight would be set by the Transport Secretary, in addition to the statutory duty on Great British Railways.
Plans welcomed by industry experts and union leaders
Businessman Keith Williams – who chaired a recent government review of Britain’s railway – said: “I welcome Labour’s intention, if they are elected, to take forward the substance of my recommendations to deliver a better railway for passengers and freight by creating a rail body with an integrated profit and loss account, at arm’s length from government.
“Running a better railway and driving revenue and reducing costs will deliver economic growth, jobs and housing by delivering better connectivity.”
Jurgen Maier – the former UK head of Siemens who was recently appointed by Labour as an adviser on rail infrastructure policy – said the proposed reforms were a “significant step in the right direction”.
He added: “It is clear that there is no plan and no ambition for our UK railway at the present time. Creating a long-term strategy is exactly what we need and will begin to restore confidence across the network – especially for passengers.”
ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We have seen more positivity in this stunning Labour vision for rail than anything at any time from the Tories during all the years of the failed Tory privatisation of our industry and their subsequent, and incoherent, rail reform programme.
“The Labour commitment delivers for the economy, for the taxpayer, for passengers and for staff. We welcome the Labour Party reaffirming that it will bring our railways back into the public sector – which is where they belong – and we welcome Lou’s vision for freight.”
“Bringing our railways back into public ownership means we can invest properly in rail and build a greener, cleaner, more sustainable transport network which, in turn, will help the economy and build a brighter future for Britain,” he added.
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