{"id":34648,"date":"2024-04-24T21:53:49","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T21:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/labour-promises-publicly-owned-rail-as-tories-slam-unfunded-nationalisation\/"},"modified":"2024-04-24T21:53:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T21:53:49","slug":"labour-promises-publicly-owned-rail-as-tories-slam-unfunded-nationalisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/24\/labour-promises-publicly-owned-rail-as-tories-slam-unfunded-nationalisation\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour promises publicly owned rail – as Tories slam ‘unfunded nationalisation’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Labour will promise to deliver the biggest shake-up to rail “in a generation” by establishing the long-delayed Great British Railways (GBR) organisation and bringing routes back into public ownership. <\/p>\n

Making the announcement in a speech on Thursday, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh will also pledge to establish a “best-price ticket guarantee” for travellers, offer automatic “delay repay” schemes and make digital season tickets available across the network.<\/p>\n

But the proposals have been attacked by the Conservatives, who claim Labour has no plan to pay for them.<\/p>\n

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GBR was first proposed in 2021<\/a><\/strong> after a review of the railways, with the aim of simplifying the franchise system and rebuilding passenger numbers after they fell dramatically during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

The proposed public body promised to subsume Network Rail’s responsibility for track and stations, as well as taking charge of ticketing, timetables and network planning.<\/p>\n

But despite getting backing from Boris Johnson and his ministers, its establishment has faced continuous delays and the organisation yet to see the light of day.<\/p>\n

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\n Boris Johnson backed the creation of Great British Railways in 2021. Pic: PA
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Labour is now pledging to get GBR up and running if they win the next election, with some additional pledges of their own.<\/p>\n

The party said the body, which would be run by industry experts rather than government officials, would end the “fragmentation, waste [and] bureaucracy” of the current network.<\/p>\n

And it would “stop profits leaking out to private operators” by taking charge of passenger lines when franchises run out – leading eventually to the whole passenger network being publicly owned.<\/p>\n

Labour said this method would prevent taxpayers from having to cover any compensation to the operators that would be due if they renationalised the railways immediately.<\/p>\n

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\n Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh will outline Labour’s plans on Thursday. Pic: PA
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The party also pledged to create a new independent watchdog called the Passenger Standards Authority to ensure GBR keeps up its standards.<\/p>\n

And it committed to introducing a statutory duty on GBR to promote the use of rail freight – still owned by private firms – to cut carbon emissions and reduce lorry traffic.<\/p>\n

Ms Haigh said: “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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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The proposals have won the backing of Keith Williams – one of the experts behind the rail review – who recommended the creation of GBR three years ago.<\/p>\n

He said its creation would “deliver a better railway for passengers and freight”, adding: “Running a better railway and driving revenue and reducing costs will deliver economic growth, jobs and housing by delivering better connectivity.”<\/p>\n

But the Conservative rail minister Huw Merriman attacked Labour’s plans as “pointless, unfunded rail nationalisation that will do nothing to improve train reliability or affordability for passengers”, adding: “Without a plan to pay for this, it means one thing – taxes will rise on hard-working people.”<\/p>\n

His criticism was backed up by Rail Partners chief executive Andy Bagnall – representing private operators – who said while train companies “agree that change is needed… nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution which will increase costs over time”.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Labour will promise to deliver the biggest shake-up to rail “in a generation” by establishing the long-delayed Great British Railways (GBR) organisation and bringing routes back into public ownership. Making the announcement in a speech on Thursday, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh will also pledge to establish a “best-price ticket guarantee” for travellers, offer automatic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/03\/512x512\/skynews-gfxwhatsapppromo-gfxwhatsapp_6490206.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[843,38091,38089,6701,38088,15637,1542,3440,38090],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34648"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34650,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34648\/revisions\/34650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}