PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2012 :: RMTnews 9 Parliamentary column There is every chance that the recent fiasco over the West Coast Mainline could be seen as a turning point in the long campaign to return the railways to public ownership. Every rail expert is saying that the government’s response to the inept handling of the franchise - to hand over the contract to Virgin on a temporary basis, hold a competition for a short term franchise and then another competition for a long term franchise - will be a r ecipe for further muddle and confusion that will only benefit the consultants and lawyers. The public never had much faith in rail privatisation and now poll after poll is finding very few supporters for continuing with the current system. And the evidence is now stacking up that there is a clear alternative. Although not perfect by any means the figures recently announced by Directly Operated Railways provide a clear counter to the drivel spouted by the government and right wing press that public ownership of the railways cannot work. In public ownership the East Coast is scoring record levels of punctuality and satisfaction and has made over £450 million in payments to the Treasury. With East Coast already under public ownership and performing well the possibility of West Coast going the same way terrifies the government. If both these main arteries of the rail system are in public ownership it will become almost impossible to argue that consideration should not be given to extending public ownership to the rest of the system. And what of Labour? The fr ont bench is calling for the East Coast to be retained in public ownership and called for the West Coast to be run in the public sector instead of being handed to Virgin. Shadow Ministers are also calling for the government’s review of franchising to look at alternatives to privatisation. This is Labour inching to the right side of the argument and is welcome. But it is now imperative that RMT members keep up the pressure to help ensure that Labour adopts a wholesale commitment to public ownership and to be prepared to challenge head on those significant forces in the party that continue to push privatisation to meet the demands of vested corporate interests. We must also be absolutely clear that tinkering with our railways is not an option, it needs to be put back together as an integrated whole under public ownership. And in making the argument for renationalisation we must also now make the case for what type of railway we want, which has the full involvements of rail workers passengers and our community. It is also clear that we need to step up our efforts to push back the EU’s proposals for a “fourth railway package” which if adopted by member states and the European Parliament would embed privatisation into our railways, including requiring the compulsory tendering of passenger railways. The future of our railways are at a new cross roads and I hope that RMT members working with the Parliamentary group can ensure we win the fight for a publicly owned railway that we can be proud of. John McDonnell is the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and convenor of the RMT Parliamentary Group. WEST COAST FIASCO O nly the intervention of a Bakerloo Line tube driver prevented a potential tragedy involving a 12 year-old boy recently, once more highlighting the need for ‘detrainment’ staff. The boy was over- carried on a train after its final stop into the Queens Park sidings. Previously these trains used to be physically checked prior to going into the sidings. RMT had objected to getting rid of detrainment staff as it was unsafe. Once in the sidings, the boy climbed out of the train and got onto the track. He could have been killed has he was very near to the live positive rail. It was only the alert actions of the driver that spotted him. This incident comes after RMT warned LU that not detraining trains was dangerous and unsafe and has two recent incidents of children on the tracks that have reinforced the safety critical role of drivers. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it once more exposed the danger of Boris Johnson’s plans for driverless trains and de- staffing the tube announced at Tory party conference. “Management has rightly called an investigation into this shocking incident but this does not go far enough for RMT safety reps. “We want a meeting to review the whole detrainment process and a return to a safe way of working,” he said. TUBE ‘DETRAINMENT’ STAFF REQUIRED