NORTHERN TAKEN INTO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2020 :: RMTnews 5 The Tory government will renationalise the failed Northern rail franchise on March 1 and take it off Arriva, part of German state-owned railway company Deutsche Bahn, and place it in the hands of the government’s “Operator of Last Resort”. The renationalisation of Northern rail would be the second such move by the Tory government in under two years, after the East Coast main line collapsed and was taken over in June 2018. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had previously said that he might allow the current franchisees to run it on a short- term management contract. But one government figure said: “You wouldn’t give the keys back to the people who crashed the car”. RMT demanded full public ownership of Britain's failing private railways as the bi-annual rail passengers satisfaction survey laid bare the state of the franchise chaos. It found that the lowest ratings for overall satisfaction were given to failing franchises including Northern Rail, West Midlands Trains, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express. Arriva has run Northern since 2016, when it replaced a consortium of Serco and Abellio with a promise to upgrade the network with a fleet of new trains, replacing its old- fashioned “Pacer” rolling stock. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the return of Northern to the public domain, joining the East Coast Main Line, should not be seen as a short- term fix and a holding operation pending another punt on another bunch of private speculators. “This has to be a permanent move followed up with the investment and planning needed to deliver the rail services that passengers deserve after years of privatised chaos. “RMT will take whatever action is required to protect our members, their jobs and their conditions, caught in the crossfire of the rail franchise meltdown and the union will now be stepping up the campaign for the whole industry to now be brought back together as an integrated, national public service shaking off the grim legacy of 25 years of private profiteering,” he said. RENATIONALISED: Northern Rail 142 Pacer diesel train at Doncaster station. The Department for Transport is putting the government-controlled Operator of Last Resort (OLR) in charge of running Northern Rail services on March 1. R MT has slammed the government for its failure to bring crisis-hit South Western Railway back into public ownership after Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced that SWR was not ‘not sustainable in the long term’. The company is currently in crisis talks with Grant Shapps, demanding yet more corporate welfare from the taxpayer as they teeter on the brink of collapse. However, rather than taking the obvious step and bringing in the public sector operator, he has asked the failing private franchise owners to submit a proposal for another contract. He also sought to blame railway workers taking strike action in defence of safety for the failures of the private companies after RMT members voted by over 80 per cent to continue with the current action on SWR despite the legal hurdles erected by the Tories and the tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers money they have lobbed at the company to sustain them through the strike action. This is the sixth time that the union has been forced to ballot, with the company stringing out the process every six months in the hope that their constant undermining of their own safety-critical workforce will impact on staff morale. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was a disgrace that South Western Railway had opted to play for time yet again rather than nailing down a solution to this dispute that puts safety and the guard guarantee centre stage. “This government is acting like a puppet for the rail companies, throwing good public money after bad and trying to breathe life into the rotting corpse of privatised rail. “Instead of dreaming up new ways to subsidise private sector profits by attacking civil liberties, he should stop pushing cost-cutting driver only operation and bring SWR into public ownership, running it in the interests of passengers and workers not his mates in the City,” he said. GOVERNMENT COP OUT ON SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY The Tory r government will renationalise the fa f iled Northern rail franchise on March 1 and t k it ff A i t f he might allow the current franchisees to run it on a short- term management contract. But g t fig id TransPennine Arriva has 2016, when it ti NORTHERN TAKEN INTO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP