PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/aug 2014 :: RMTnews 9 Almost two years ago the collapse of the tendering process for the heavily subsidised and lucrative West Coast Mainline triggered the biggest crisis in the railways for over a decade. Miscalculations by under- sourced and overworked senior civil servants led to the government being forced to abandon its original decision to award the rail franchise to First Group. Instead the existing joint holders of the franchise, Virgin and Stagecoach, were asked to carry on running the franchise through a contract extension until a new bidding process could start. The cost to the tax payer ran to tens of millions and the government’s entire rail franchise timetable was put out by years. The whole episode was rightly labelled a fiasco and led to a government initiated inquiry into the franchise system. This fiasco was followed by the fiddle. The man asked by the government to conduct the inquiry was Richard Brown, former commercial director of National Express and chair of the Association of Train Operating Companies. He concluded that there was nothing wrong and franchising should continue. Brown was also the CEO of Eurostar (now bidding for the publicly-owned East Coast) and is now a non- executive director at the Department for Transport. This fiddled inquiry led to fiddled franchising. The government had to recast its franchising programme including reviewing how contracts were drawn up and limiting the number of franchises it awarded each year. This meant that nearly every rail franchise would be up for renewal before the government could put a new tendering process in place. Rather than asking its own Directly Operated Railways subsidiary to take over the franchises the government instead decided to “extend” the franchises or make a “direct award” to the incumbents without any competition so guaranteeing even more risk-free profits without any public consultation or scrutiny. One of the exceptions to this has been publicly-owned East Coast. Despite making huge payments to the taxpayer East Coast has not been given a direct award or extension but put at the front of the franchising queue as the government seek to re- privatise the service before the General Election in 2015 (Labour has said it will keep the service in the public sector). This appalling abuse of tax payer’s money has created considerable uncertainly for the workforce and passengers and the rail unions are to be applauded for trying to challenge all this in the courts. It is against this background that Labour is shifting ground on the railways with a real debate going on in the party about public ownership. So it was depressing to recently see senior Labour figures floating the barmy idea of creating a “level playing field” in rail franchises with the state bidding against the private sector for franchises. There are eleven franchises up for renewal between 2015 - 2020, and with franchise bids costing about £10 million a piece and with usually three or four bidders per franchise, this policy would mean at least half a billion being taken out of the railway in five years on bidding costs alone. The policy would also involve a state company with no experience in bidding for contracts coming up against the private sector, potentially losing bids and tax payer’s money. It would also leave other franchises such as TSGN and Essex Thameside untouched and not address the damaging privatisation of our rail freight industry MPs are campaigning with RMT and the other unions for Labour to commit the party to taking rail back into public ownership. Privatisation has failed. Despite record levels of public subsidy we have the highest fares in Europe and private sector investment and innovation is non-existent. Independent reports calculate public ownership could save at least £1 billion a year which could be spent on securing services, jobs and cheaper fares. Current conditions are increasingly favourable for nationalisation. In September the government will be forced to nationalise infrastructure company Network Rail because ministers have been forced to finally accept that a company that is completely funded by the public has to be in the public sector. At the same time new polling has shown that a policy of rail nationalisation would actually make Tory, UKIP and Liberal voters switch to Labour in marginal seats. There is a golden opportunity for taking the railway back into public ownership – lets campaign together to make sure it happens. Katy Clark is the Labour MP for North Ayrshire and Arran and a member of the RMT Parliamentary Group FIASCOS, FIDDLES AND FRANCHISING Notification of Political Fund ballot Members should note that in accordance with the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (as amended) the RMT is required to hold a review ballot at least every ten years, in order that the union can retain its political fund. Your union is strongly recommending your vote yes. The ballot will give members the opportunity to vote on whether the union should be able to spend money for political purposes. The law says that the union must have a political fund to do this. RMT will therefore be balloting members on whether or not to maintain the union’s political fund. The ballot will take place between 1st September and 3rd November 2014. The ballot will be a postal ballot and voting papers will be sent directly to members’ homes or to another address which the member has requested the union in writing to treat as their postal address. Electoral Reform Services will be acting as the Independent Scrutineer and will oversee the conduct of the ballot. Their address is the Election Centre, 33 Clarendon Road, London, N8 0NW. Any member who has changed their home address or wishes their ballot paper to be sent to a different address and has not yet notified the union, should contact the RMT Helpline on 0800 376 3706, or email info@rmt.org.uk