18 October 2024
RMT Press Office:
In a joint letter to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the leaders of two major transport unions, RMT and ASLEF, have urged him to take immediate steps to bring the Elizabeth Line and London Overground into public ownership.
The letter comes in the wake of the newly elected Labour government's clear stance on the need to overhaul the UK’s railways, ending decades of privatisation.
RMT Mick Lynch, General Secretary, and Mick Whelan, General Secretary of ASLEF, highlighted the inefficiencies and costs associated with the current privatisation model, noting that it has led to fragmented and expensive services for passengers.
"Privatisation has been a costly inefficient failure," they wrote, emphasising that the government's forthcoming legislation makes public ownership the default option for the rest of the country’s railways.
Citing the government's impact assessment, the union leaders stressed the financial and service-related benefits of public ownership: “There will be significant savings to government... public ownership represents an opportunity to improve [passenger rail service] by removing the commercially driven focus on individual operators' profit,” the letter reads.
The unions argue that by taking the Elizabeth Line and London Overground into public hands, Londoners would see more of their fare revenue reinvested into the network.
They pointed out that private operators like MTR and Arriva Rail London, who currently manage these services, have paid out millions in dividends – money they say could have been used to reduce fares. "MTR paid out a dividend of £7.6 million, equivalent to a 2.4% cut in Elizabeth Line fares," they noted, while "Arriva Rail London paid a dividend of £9.6 million, equivalent to a 4.4% cut in Overground fares."
The letter also argues that public ownership would support Mayor Khan's long-standing goal of greater devolved control over London’s rail services, allowing for better integration and coordination across the capital.
"London would not only share the same policy direction as the national government, but public ownership would make it significantly easier to create the kind of governance structures that would enable greater devolution to London," the leaders wrote.
With contracts for both the Elizabeth Line and London Overground nearing their end, Mr Lynch and Mr Whelan see a unique opportunity for the Mayor to act decisively.
"The time to do this is now," they urged, calling on Khan to "seize this moment" and commit to public ownership, thereby aligning London’s railways with the national movement towards a publicly owned railway system.
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