RMT welcomes rail regulator’s move on ROSCOs

Publication Date: April 26 2007

THE OFFICE of the Rail Regulator’s decision to refer the leasing of rolling stock for franchised passenger services to the Competition Commission was today welcomed by Britain’s biggest rail union RMT.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Since privatisation, the key feature of the rolling stock sector has been large profits and sizeable shareholder dividends, with the three rolling-stock companies raking in around £1 billion a year in leasing charges.”

“It’s time for the government to devise a strategy for rolling stock that puts the interest of the passenger before profits.

“The government’s intention to introduce 1,000 extra carriages onto the network should not be held to ransom by the ROSCOs,” Bob Crow said.

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