Sir, – As train fares rise surely it is time to review the failed policy of rail privatisation.The success of East Coast, which brought £1bn into the Treasury, is testament to the absurdity of returning this line to the private sector.
Recent figures from the Campaign for Better Transport show that ticket prices have risen by a fifth since the last general election.
UK passengers pay the highest fares in Europe for unreliable travel on understaffed and overcrowded trains. Private rail companies still depend on public subsidies and have failed to deliver the improvements promised. These companies pay up to 90 per cent of their profits to shareholders, who ironically are often foreign state-owned railways. At the same time a recent report by Transport for Quality of Life estimated that £1.2bn is lost each year as a result of the fragmentation and privatisation of railways, including a whole army of people to calculate what the rail companies owe one another.
Green MP Caroline Lucas' private member’s bill to bring rail back into public ownership is due for its second reading. Will the Labour Party have the courage to back it, or are they still pseudo-Tories?
LESLIE ROWE
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Richmond, North Yorkshire
Brompton on Swale, Richmond.
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