TIME TO RENATIONALISE RAIL

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2021 :: RMTnews 4 RMT renewed its demands for all rail services to be taken into public ownership after the public owned Operator of Last Resort (OLR) was given a five year extension to its running of Northern Rail. On the same day that the government increased regulated fares by 2.6 per cent .RMT published research that revealed that private train operating and rolling stock companies’ profits from last year stand to be equivalent to 15p of every pound passengers paid on fares during the same period. The union is demanding an end, once and for all to the rail privatisation shambles to allow all revenue profit to be reinvested in improving the rail network for passengers and ensuring a fair deal for rail workers. Arguments for the government to take immediate action on public ownership also grew after the union revealed preparations had been ramped up in the past to pave the way for the Operator of Last Resort to step in on franchises across the country. Companies House records show strategic changes were made to the structure of a series of shell OLR companies in readiness for them to take over at South Western Railway, C2C, Cross Country, Great Western Railway. Effectively the Operator of Last Resort – the public sector option – was now in the final stages of seizing control of Britain’s railways. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was now clear that the final preparations for the public takeover of Britain's failed franchise system were being put in place so the government should stop dithering and get on with it. "All the operators are now effectively public operations anyway with the taxpayer taking responsibility through a network of management contracts from which the operators extract a profit for doing nothing. The final moves to full public ownership would be a mere formality. "We should cut out the middleman, end the failed privatisation experiment and reinvest the private profits in a green railway fit for the future,” he said. He also said that the announcement to keep Northern public was good news and something that RMT had been campaigning on for many years after repeated failures by the previous privatised operators. “Make no mistake that this announcement is a colossal admission of the failure of privatised railways by the government. “Privatised rail operators that cream huge profits out of our railways whilst operating a substandard service have no place in running our railways when looking to the post Covid-19 recovery and to fight the climate emergency. We need a functional and publicly owned railway more than ever,” he said. WILLIAMS REVIEW However the union has warned that the government’s long delayed rail review by Keith Williams was all about saving rail privatisation rather than saving the railways. Previewing the results of the review Williams said that any new structure would facilitate efficiencies identified by previous reviews conducted by Sir Roy McNulty in 2011 and Richard Brown in 2013 including “workforce reform”. Ominously the DfT is also advertising for a Rail Pensions and Workforce Director to “strengthen the department’s expertise on rail workforce, industrial relations and pensions policy” – a union buster. RMT has warned that the primary way the TOC’s will be able to continue to make a profit is if these are directly paid for by the taxpayer and through attacks on the jobs, pay and pensions of rail workers. “Instead of saving our railways it looks like Keith Williams is more interested in saving rail privatisation and rail profiteering that has continued even during the Coronavirus pandemic. “We fear this will be largely achieved by continuing to use taxpayers’ money to directly subsidise the profits of the rail fat cats whilst also declaring war on the livelihoods of rail workers who have risked and in some cases tragically lost their lives keeping the country moving during the pandemic. “We will not stand by and see our railways and our essential workers exploited in this way and will use every industrial and political means at our disposal to oppose reactionary rail reforms cooked up between the government and vested corporate interests,” Mick Cash said. TIME TO RENATIONALISE RAIL RMT renews renationalisation call as government extends its public ownership of Northern Rail RENATIONALISE: Commuters and disabled groups demonstrating before lockdown for renationalisation at London Victoria train station. The union has revealed that preparations are being made by the government to pave the way for the Operator of Last Resort to step in on franchises across the country.