Fixing Our Railways

Rail passengers are being asked to pay more for less as fares rise but service quality plummets. People will make up their own minds about how we got to this position, but many will likely agree that it's time for change.

The current Government has identified waste equalling £1.5 billion a year. It does not plan to save this money with any changes before the election. Labour proposes to save this (as well as a further £680m identified) with public ownership of the railways.

Quite apart from the improvements for passengers, there’s an economic bonus to public ownership. Rail freight contributes £2.45 billion to the economy, the proposed statutory duty to enable the growth of rail freight will add more money. There are also climate and congestion bonuses: a freight train can carry as much as 129 lorries, reducing the traffic clogging up roads and bringing down carbon emissions. The proposal feels like a win-win.

The taxpayer won’t pay a penny in compensation costs to private operators. Rather, the railways will come into public ownership as contracts expire or are broken through poor performance by operators. A new passenger watchdog called the Passenger Standards Authority would hold a public owned railway network accountable and that network will have leadership by rail experts, not Government ministers.

We can get Bournemouth moving by improving our railways. This is a plan that I hope local residents would welcome as a positive step forward.