PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

WE NEED A HIGH SPEED 2 SOCIALISM RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2023 :: RMTnews 21 T his month I joined RMT members with thousands of trade unionists at the People’s Assembly protest in Manchester against the Tory Party Conference taking place in the city. Manchester does not elect a single Tory MP, or Councillor. It is not a Tory city. The cradle of the labour movement, where in 1819, armed cavalry massacred workers demonstrating in St Peter’s Fields (‘Peterloo’), Manchester is the city where the Trades Union Congress was founded in 1868. Rishi Sunak chose to announce he was scrapping the HS2 high-speed rail network to Manchester at Manchester Central Convention Centre (formerly Manchester Central station). Genius. Instead, he pledged to extend Metrolink tram to Manchester Airport – a link that opened in 2014. For fifteen years banks and big businesses have had their noses in the HS2 trough, snorting billions in fees for consultants, lawyers, contractors, and inflated property prices. Now, the Tories have killed the 'Northern Powerhouse' they promised voters in 2014. But HS2 was nobbled long before Sunak’s announcement. Originally linking Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and London within 90 minutes, in 2010 the DfT High Speed Rail – Command Paper called for a “new British high speed rail network connected to the wider European high speed rail network via High Speed One and the Channel Tunnel.“ In 2012, HS2 Ltd estimated direct trains from Leeds and Manchester to Paris would take 3 hours, 38 minutes. Birmingham to Paris, a mere 3 hours, 7 minutes. Then in 2014, the government cut the HS2-HS1 link from the High-Speed Rail Bill. Lord Adonis later told parliament “... it seems absurd there is not a connection between [HS2-HS1] but I very much doubt it would be taken up in any big way. While we have cheap airlines that offer very frequent services to Manchester and Birmingham it is unlikely such a line would be viable.” High-speed rail linking city centres in under five hours is highly competitive against environmentally damaging short-haul flights. When airlines funded by lavish EU regional airport subsidies, lobbied to cut the link between HS2 and the Channel Tunnel, Tory ministers agreed. The vultures today picking over HS2’s carcass, are a perfect symbol for such short- term opportunism. Sunak has announced a private development company to manage and finance the Euston-Old Oak Common link, meaning HS2 will never reach central London. Instead, Euston will become a gold rush for property speculators building ‘luxury flats’ as trophy investments for global billionaires. Under the Tories, property speculation always trumps public interest. A government representing rentier capitalists isn’t interested in, or capable of developing strategic national infrastructure such as high-speed rail, renewable energy, or public housing. In the decade it took the Tories to turn HS2 into luxury homes opportunities for their mates, China developed a 40,000 km publicly owned, high-speed rail network, the largest in the world. Using breakthrough technologies, such as super- thin, large hollow aluminium to build aerodynamic nose cones, China’s latest Fuxing bullet train reaches speeds of 350 km/hour to slash travel times on the 1,318 km (818.9 miles) Beijing-Shanghai route from 37 to four hours. Britain isn’t the only country going backwards. From December 2023, France’s TER regional rail services go out to tender under EU Rail Liberalisation rules. The new TER Loire-Atlantique operator has already slashed 17 trains from its September timetable. Railways are a public good that will be developed by long-term public investment and public ownership. Developing a successful high- speed rail network requires socialism. Alex Gordon President’s Column A fter 51 years of working on the railways and a member of the union Stewart Livingstone is retiring after started his railway career in November 1972 at the parcel terminal at Peterborough. He progressed to the position of shunter at a time when the yard had two 350 shunters and would normally deal with up to 70 trains a day. In 1987 Stewart moved to Peterborough station where he remained for three years until becoming a Rest Day relief crossing keeper in 1989 covering Marholm, Woodcroft, Helpston, Whittlesey and Bainton staying in this role for six years. He became a messenger where he earned his nickname of Postman Pat which stuck. He transferred to Kings Cross but returned in 2002 to working Woodcroft Crossing which is the only remaining hand-operated level crossing on the network. In 2005 he attended signalling school and moved to Peterborough PSB until its closure in August and Stewart decided to take severance marking the end of an era as his father-in-law was on duty for the first train signalled by Peterborough PSB and Stewart was on duty to signal the last, the two combined have 103 years’ service. “It really has been a great part of my life and certainly the most enjoyable years, I will miss the railway family,” he said. OVER 50 YEARS’ SERVICE PETERBOROUGH: (Left to Right) Stewart Livingstone, Jake Moore, SSM Dave Lilley, Dave Toynton, Phil Nolan and local rep Martin Mason