OUR MAN IN PYONGYANG

RMTnews :: june 2006 :: www.rmt.org.uk 26 T his month my Scottish Socialist Party colleague Tommy Sheridan MSP introduced a Bill to Parliament to take rail passenger services in Scotland back into public hands. The Provision of Passenger Services [Scotland] Bill is the product of many months of painstaking work between Tommy and Thompsons’ Solicitors to find a way such a proposal can be laid in front of the Holyrood Parliament. Many people argued it could not be done, that the powers necessary to take our railways back into public hands in Scotland were reserved at Westminster. But it is not so. Under powers recently conferred on the Scottish Executive by The Railways Act 2005 Scottish Executive ministers can insist the franchise to run Scottish passenger services is conducted on a ‘not for profit’ basis. Tommy’s Bill needs to be introduced now however so that it has a chance of being passed before Parliament rises to fight next years Holyrood elections. Public ownership of the railways is popular in Scotland. A poll conducted for the Scottish Socialist Party found more than 2/3rds of voters keen to see the railways back under public control. Reliable and efficient rail service provision is particularly important for the 36% of households in Scotland – rising to 42 per cent and 59 per cent in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively – who do not have a car. The Glasgow to Edinburgh train service runs every 15minutes and is heavily over subscribed. RMT official Phil McGarry told a Parliamentary press conference to formally launch the Bill that the amount of money, public money, now being poured into the railways is three times that given to support British Rail. It is reckoned that £15m per day is leaving the industry and ending up in the coffers of companies like First Group. Since the government’s formula for calculating the level of subsidy is based on a ‘costs plus profits minus revenue equals subsidy’ approach, then clearly if we delete the profit element then there will be significantly more money going into the service itself. This will result in more efficient railways management, more investment in rolling stock and reduction in fares. The current franchise to run passengers services in Scotland operated by First Scotrail runs until 2011. Passing the Bill now would allow for the necessary preparations for ending of a privately run service to be in place by then. Tommy Sheridan, in laying the Bill proposal before Parliament, said: “Everyone knows that rail privatisation is inefficient, uneconomic and incapable of delivering sustainable expanded services, fair fares, safe railways or value for money for the taxpayer. “These important new powers handed to the Scottish Parliament must now be used to remove the profit motive from the rail service and deliver a not for profit passenger service provided publicly or by another appropriate not for profit provider,’’ he said. The Bill has the support of Scottish Socialist Party MSPs, Greens, SNP and many Labour and Liberal Democrats. Together, with RMT and other rail unions, the campaign to bring our railways back into public hands will be taking its message around Scotland this summer in order to rally the considerable support the proposal enjoys. Colin Fox, MSP Scottish Socialist Party Convenor Most people thought I was mad when I told them I was going on holiday to North Korea. That’s debatable, but the fact remains that the time I spent in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was one of the best weeks of my life. One thing high on my agenda was to meet some fellow transport workers, and a visit to the Pyongyang Metro gave me my opportunity. I didn’t think it was possible for a Metro system to be beautiful, but that’s the only way to describe it. Stations are named after revolutionary themes, such as Victory and Reunification, and platforms are adorned with beautiful mosaics depicting scenes from the revolution. The trains (formerly on the East Berlin U-Bahn) and stations were remarkably clean and refreshingly free from advertising. Despite the language barrier, a lot of gesturing and the photo I’d brought of me driving a train, I passed on a message of solidarity and friendship with the Metro workers of Pyongyang. The biggest thing I took away from my trip was the infectious warmth and happiness of the people. WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A PUBLIC RAILWAY Tube driver Paul Bowman recounts a trip to the northern part of the divided Korean peninsula Our man in Pyongyang