THIS YEAR'S Labour Party Conference voted overwhelmingly in favour of returning the railways to public ownership. This decision has predictably been ignored by the government, who have instead published yet another Railways Bill which industry observers, even those opposed to renationalisation, consider completely inadequate to address the problems. Transport 2000 commented, "The bill lacks any vision for growing the railway."
Transport Minister Alistair Darling announced his review and said that the subsequent Bill was the "chance of a lifetime to radically restructure the industry". "What a letdown," was the reaction from transport specialist author and broadcaster Christian Wolmar.
The motion to renationalise was taken to the Labour conference by the rail union TSSA and supported by ASLEF. Both unions have recently announced votes in favour of maintaining their political funds, following campaigns by their leaderships who have spoken loudly of the benefits and influence that flow from affiliation to the Labour Party.
Having seen how completely impotent Labour's conference really is, members will wonder what that campaign was all about. The forthcoming debate in those unions, and in RMT, will surely now recognise the reality of what little can be achieved through involvement in the Labour Party, and instead begin to explore the alternatives.
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| Rushing for a train at London's Waterloo Station: passengers and staff are on the sharp end of the growing transport crisis |
Renationalisation
What has been achieved so far by the rail unions is a clear demonstration of the fact that renationalisation of the railways is popular. Opinion polls show it is popular with the public as a whole, especially those who use the railway. It is popular with rail workers who are now once again suffering as the industry is gripped by further convulsions and job losses. It is popular with trade unionists in general (a non-contentious policy, it was carried at TUC 2004 Congress). It is even popular with Labour Party constituency members.
Yet this government is resolutely and ideologically opposed to renationalisation. Its latest bill simply doesn't recognise that privatisation and fragmentation lie at the heart of the railways' problems. It doesn't recognise that the runaway costs to the taxpayer of simply running the railways as they are now arise from having to provide profits to the myriad of railway companies. And there is no promise of the sort of massive investment that government envisaged, and even Stagecoach boss Brian Souter says is necessary if the railways are to cope with future demand.
Giving more power to local and regional authorities to substitute buses for rail services will not solve the problems. Taking safety away from the HSE and transferring responsibility to the Office of Rail Regulation will only ensure more power in the hands of commercial interests. Tinkering with the number and composition of the passenger franchises is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The government is even giving serious consideration to schemes that would bring volunteers in to run some rural routes, adding insult to injury. Pay more taxes for running the railways, then run some of them yourselves for nothing!
The benefits of public ownership and control are being demonstrated by South Eastern Trains (SET), a publicly owned company that took over services from London to Kent. Connex, the previous private operators, were shown the door by an exasperated Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), fed up with their abysmal service and frequent demands for more and more handouts from public funds. SET has greatly improved the quality of services, but the government now wants to fly in the face of common sense and re-privatise.
The integration of infrastructure and trains is being seriously considered by the government for the Merseyrail network following the transfer of franchising responsibility from the SRA to the local Passenger Transport Authority.
Interestingly, James Sherwood, American boss of Sea Containers (the company that owns GNER), has recently stated, 'the cost of operating separate infrastructure and train companies is much higher than if we had an integrated railway'. Other private train company bosses have supported this, apparently missing the fact that the logic of their argument is to recreate a national integrated railway! Unions are, however, worried that this proposed integration would involve the transfer of staff from the 'quasi-nationalised' Network Rail to a private company.
Meanwhile, having taken maintenance 'in-house', Network Rail is making hundreds of staff redundant, some of whom are long-standing skilled engineering staff, the sort of people most needed to put the railways right. Many other engineering staff still employed by contractors face a very uncertain future as Network Rail starves their companies of work. The government, unwilling to tackle the real cause of spiralling costs, is tightening the screws on Network Rail, which is then doing likewise to the contractors. Our money goes for the profits of the train operating companies while the skilled engineers are sacked.
| Skill centres wiped out as contracts for rolling stock go abroad
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| "The country that invented the train will soon have no capacity to build trains for its own tracks unless there is urgent action." This comment on the axing of 560 Bombardier rolling stock jobs in Derby by Derek Simpson, General Secretary of the trade union Amicus, is no exaggeration.
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| The Derby factory has been making trains since 1876 and is the only rolling stock plant left in Britain. The job losses — a total of 750, including 165 maintenance jobs at Ilford, in East London — are life-threatening to the industry when such a highly skilled, irreplaceable workforce is destroyed.
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| The government appears to have no strategy for replacing rolling stock and seems hell-bent on ensuring that such work goes to EU companies or Japanese companies. It has now created the possibility of a shortfall of orders which could close Bombardier. This lack of long-term planning is not a new phenomenon but was epitomised in the "stop, start, mothball, re-open, close down" strategy which destroyed British shipbuilding.
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| Decisions need to be taken now to replace the 30 year old 125 Inter-City fleet, speed up the replacement of London Underground rolling stock and provide the engines and carriages for cross-London rail infrastructure developments.
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| The government may regard Bombardier as having been successful in securing one-third of the replacement orders for Britain's rolling stock. But that still means that two-thirds has gone elsewhere.
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| The only other train builder in Britain, Alstom, closed its Birmingham plant early in 2004 with the loss of 1,000 jobs. When you are down to the last train building factory in Britain there is no leeway. Closure will be terminal for the rolling stock industry.
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Squeeze
The rail unions continue to argue that all engineering activities, especially track and signaling renewals, should be taken back into Network Rail as a first step to renationalisation. The continuing involvement of the private sector in rail means that the workers will pay the price of the government's squeeze, not the shareholders and senior directors.
With so much of the railway still suffering from many years of under investment, the industry can ill afford to lose highly skilled engineers. Several recent accidents highlight the need for greater technological protection for level crossings, and on high-speed lines, the replacement of level crossings with bridges.
And it is not just the rail workers who are paying the price of the government's failures. Passengers have greeted with dismay news that rail fares are to rise this month (January 2005) by up to 7.2%. A bitter pill to swallow given the fact that very few rail users can see much in the way of an improved service.
The government has shown that is is not willing to deal with Britain's growing transport crisis. It is now time for the rail unions to recognise that fact, and to organise and plan an alternative strategy for the railways.