TAKING MERSEYRAIL IN-HOUSE

TAKING MERSEYRAIL IN-HOUSE RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september/october 2026 :: RMTnews 12 Liverpool’s Combined Authority has unanimously backed Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram;s proposals to bring Merseyrail into public ownership when the current contract ends in 2028. This will leave Transport for London as the last island of privatised rail in Britain as every other devolved transport authority – Merseytravel, Transport for Wales, Transport Scotland, Nexus - will be operating rail services in the public sector alongside publicly owned Great British Railways. In London, by contrast, even as the Labour government was beginning to bring franchises back into public ownership, Transport for London re-privatised both the Elizabeth Line and London Overground. The Elizabeth Line is now operated on a seven-year contract by a joint venture of Go-Ahead Group Plc and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, both stock exchange listed and substantially owned by investment banks and asset management funds. London Overground was handed over on an eight-year contract to FirstGroup, the British transport plc who brought you Avanti West Coast. FirstGroup’s shareholders include many of the same funds and banks who own GTS. The two companies must have been licking their lips at the news since London’s two concessions have paid out £116 million in dividends since 2018. RMT launched a campaign last year for the nationalisation of Merseyrail services following press reports that councillors were considering an option to extend the privatisation of the services when its contract expired. In an answer to a question in parliament from Liverpool Labour MP Kim Johnson, the transport minister had previously confirmed that the mayor has the legal powers to take the service into public ownership. RMT has pointed out that under the contract Merseyrail has made £212 million in dividends since 2003. The union has said that at a time when the Labour government nationally is taking services into public ownership it would be a betrayal of passengers if Labour in Liverpool and the Combined Regional Authority area decided to re-privatise rail services it has control over. RMT general secretary at the time Mick Lynch said that the union had received assurances in the past that Mayor Steve Rotheram wanted to take Merseyrail into public ownership, and he had the power to do just that. “Since the contract has started in 2003 an eyewatering £212 million in dividends has been fleeced off in profits, money that could have been spent cutting fares and improving services, as well as insourcing outsourced contracts, which the Labour Government has stated we will see the biggest wave of insourcing. “However, Merseyrail has been so greedy they have even refused to directly employ hard working rail cleaners who were so important to keeping services safe during Covid and today. Merseyside’s politicians now also need to demand that our cleaners are taken in-house,” he said. Following RMT’s campaign Merseyrail public ownership leaves London as the last island of privatised rail