WHEN British Rail was privatised in the 1990’s it was supposed to make the network more efficient, improve reliability, increase investment and mean cheaper fares for passengers.
However, the reality in most cases has been the opposite, rail privatisation has spectacularly failed to deliver on the promises made.
Since privatisation, the average price of a train journey has increased by 23.5% in real terms. Since 2009 fares have risen twice as fast as wages.
Commuters are spending up to five times as much of their salary on season tickets compared to the rest of Europe. If rail transport was more affordable many more of us would ditch our cars in favour of public transport.
Train operating companies are also reliant on public subsidies to run services so effectively we pay twice, through fares and as taxpayers.
Some of the train operators in the UK are run by other state owned companies, so profit made goes directly into improving rail services in countries such as Italy.
Despite promises of increased investment in railways since privatisation, the private sector has avoided investing in our railway. The average age of trains is higher than it was in 1996. Just £1.9bn was spent on rolling stock between 2008 and 2012, compared to £3.2bn, before privatisation in 1989-93. Over 90 per cent of new investment in recent years has been financed by Network Rail, the taxpayer funded body responsible for rail infrastructure.
Privatisation has failed to the extent that some franchises in the UK have been brought back under public ownership. Southeastern railways is the latest to be taken out of the hands of the private sector, after defrauding the government of £25 million.
Southeastern railways now joins Scotrail, Wales and Borders, the East Coast Mainline and Northern Rail in public ownership.
The RMT transport union, has recently published a briefing entitled “The unbearable cost of failure: Private profiteering on ‘Great British Railways’.
This highlights the profits made by train operating companies, while rail workers and passengers suffer. Private operating companies are taking £1.3 billion a year in profits out of the railways, money which could be spent on investment instead.
During the pandemic the government effectively nationalised all rail in the UK. Passengers numbers dropped, but the private operators continued to make profit.
This was because the government guaranteed profits, as long as the pandemic continued. When business is good, private companies rake in the profits.
When business is bad, the government steps in and pays the private companies to keep doing what they’re doing.
Scotland and Wales have already taken their railways back into public ownership, England should follow suit. Private companies are only interested in extracting profit from our transport system.
A nationalised railway can put passengers first, reducing fares, protecting and investing in services which people rely on. The majority of the public supports nationalisation of the railways.
It’s time to end the profiteering by failing private operators and bring back British Rail.