Unions call for public ownership of MerseyRail

The letter reads: 

We’re writing to you as General Secretaries of the three specialist rail unions with reference to your forthcoming meeting on 26 June where you will receive a presentation from the current operator of the Merseyrail concession, the joint venture between Transport UK and Serco.

On the national rail network, the Labour government is putting an end to the fragmentation and profiteering that has blighted our railways for three decades.

In the impact assessment for its Passenger Rail Services (Public Ownership) Act, the government noted that there would be significant immediate savings to the government from cutting off the profits paid to private operators. 

The impact assessment also said that there would be significant further savings from the removal of interface costs and opportunities to significantly improve passenger rail services. We believe that the people of the Liverpool City Region deserve to have this opportunity too.

Over the life of the concession, so far, Serco and Transport UK (formerly Abellio) have extracted a staggering £212 million in dividends payments. 

In return they have invested very little in Merseyrail. In fact, they make a huge return on their capital employed (ROCE) of 182%. 

This means that Merseyrail is a primarily extractive enterprise that takes out far more than it puts in. This money could have been spent on improving Merseyrail services and infrastructure or lowering fares and driving up patronage. Taking Merseyrail into public ownership would ensure that every penny was being spent on rail and not risk-free returns for shareholders.

Merseyrail has also overseen the outsourcing of key functions on the service, including cleaning, security staff and maintenance workers, all of whom are important to keeping our rail services running and safe. 

Bringing Merseyrail into public ownership would be an opportunity to address the social injustice that accompanies outsourcing as well as further reducing fragmentation.

We would welcome the opportunity to present and discuss this with the Committee in more detail.

Eddie Dempsey General Secretary RMT

Mick Whelan General Secretary ASLEF

Maryam Eslamdoust General Secretary TSSA

END