RMT calls for an end to the charade of rail privatisation

RMT calls for an end to the charade of rail privatisation

10 July 2020

RMT Press Office:

RMT calls for an end to the charade of privatisation as ONS reclassifies train operators onto the public sector balance sheet.

RAIL UNION RMT today demanded that the government end the charade of privatisation and the grotesque waste of franchising after it was confirmed that the Office for National Statistics have reclassified the debts of the private train operators as part of the public debt on the public sector balance sheet.

The shift has been described as another move towards the de facto nationalisation of the railways after the Emergency Measures Agreements guaranteed that the taxpayer will pick up the tab for services throughout the COVID-19 emergency and beyond and comes days after First Group threatened to throw back the keys despite soaking up tens of millions in corporate welfare payments from the UK taxpayer and creating uncertainty on four crucial rail routes - West Coast, South Western, Great Western and Transpennine.

RMT says that rather than risking that kind of chaos, and with the taxpayer already paying for services, underwriting debt and wasting cash underpinning private operators profits, there has never been a better opportunity to ditch the fragmentation and waste of franchising and bring the railway officially into full public ownership.

RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Mick Lynch said;

"The charade of rail privatisation should end and the government should now formalise the inevitable and bring the whole lot into official public ownership and start planning for the future of a publicly owned railway that will be essential to our economic and strategic well being post COVID-19.

"Rather than risking the chaos of further franchise collapes, and with the taxpayer already paying for services, underwriting debt and wasting cash underpinning private operators profits, there has never been a better opportunity to ditch the fragmentation and waste of franchising and bring the railway officially into full public ownership."


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Tagged with: Covid-19, Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, Tory Government, Rail Privatisation