Greens renew call for railway nationalisation after upgrading debacle

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has renewed the Green's call call for the railways to be returned to public ownership and accused the government of “failing” on public transport after it announced it would delay or cut back several railway improvement projects.

Bennett said:

This government is already failing when it comes to public transport. It is failing the two-thirds of unemployed people who don’t have access to a car, the thousands who die prematurely due to air pollution, the rural poor trapped by the slashing of bus services.

The growing numbers of people who use our railways every day are increasingly dissatisfied with the service they are getting. If we want to encourage people to use public transport, to improve public health and reduce air pollution, we must invest.

Yet instead of making public transport accessible, reliable, convenient and affordable, the government is wasting money on expensive vanity projects like HS2 and the expansion of major roads.

The Green Party, along with 66% of the public, wants to see Britain’s railways back in public hands, so that profits can be invested back into improving services, rather than filling the pockets of shareholders. It’s time the government listened to the public, and delivered a railway service that works for passengers, not profit.

Greens: Bring rail back into public hands following more fare rises

As rail companies in England announced fare rises for 2014,  commuters and their household budgets received more bad news.

Firms are allowed to put fares up by much as 2% above the agreed price-increase figure which, for 2014, is 3.1%.

Among the fares announced were annual seasons for travel between Reading in Berkshire and London, which is up 3.23% to  £4,088. and travellers from Dover Priory and Deal to London see annual fares rising 3.04% to £5,012.

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said:

This latest price hike is going to put a dampener on many commuters' Christmas, and be a boost to support for Green MP Caroline Lucas's private members' bill calling for the railways to be brought back into public hands.

Travellers face overcrowded journeys as standard on too many routes, on the most crowded trains in Europe.

They face immensely costly journeys, and they know that more than £1bn of their cash is going into the 'black hole' of privatisation inefficiencies, plus billions more in declared and undeclared
government subsidies.

Casual users face a confusing fare structure that often leaves them paying more than they need or trapped with penalty fares due to confusion.

It's time to say enough is enough: privatisation has failed, we need to bring the railways back into public hands.

Council Tax, Railways, Energy - Focus for action tomorrow

The People's Assembly is calling protests across the country to mark the 'Bonfire of Austerity' tomorrow, November 5th.

There will be a demonstration outside Willesden Magistrates Court at 9am tomorrow to protest at Labour controlled Brent Council's decisions to issue courts summonses to some 12,000 people who have not paid their Council Tax. These are often people already on low incomes who have had to pay a portion of their Council Tax for the first time this year due to changes in the Council Tax benefit system which is now administered by local councils.

Cllr Muhammed Butt was on the London section of Sunday Politics yesterday defending the Council's decision. He said that Council officers will be present at court to help those who have been summoned.

His appearance can be seen here at 53mins LINK

The Campaign for Renationalisation of the railways will be leafleting at Ealing Broadway station from 5.30pm until 7pm.

The London focus in the evening includes Anonymous in Trafalgar Square and Block the Bridge at Westminster Bridge:

Block Westminster Bridge – Assemble at Jubilee Gardens at 6pm, contact office@thepeoplesassemblyorg.uk/ Facebook

Bring your energy bills: we will be burning our energy bills on the bridge to highlight the massive rise in energy prices which have left people choosing between heating and eating.

Greens call for renationalisation of all UK railways

 The  UK’s busiest intercity rail route should be taken back into public ownership, after a debacle which provides further proof that all UK railways should be renationalised, the Green Party believes.
 

The Department for Transport announced this morning that it will scrap its decision to award the West Coast mainline franchise to FirstGroup – at a cost of £40m.

Green Party transport spokesman Alan Francis said: ‘This debacle is further evidence that the privatised rail system is not fit for purpose – with passengers having to foot the bill for an increasingly expensive service and, as we have claimed for many years, that the franchise system itself is fatally flawed.’

The 13-year franchise was awarded to FirstGroup ahead of three other firms, including Virgin, which already runs it and will continue to until December 9. 

Mr Francis said: ‘The £40m cost to the taxpayer is to compensate all four firms for their expenses during the failed bidding process. However this is a tiny fraction of the money wasted on the privatised railways every year. Rail privatisation costs passengers and taxpayers £1.2bn per year more than it did in the last years of the nationalised system.’

The DfT‘s announcement came just 24 hours before a High Court challenge against the decision by Virgin Rail was due to begin.

And its decision leaves the franchise’s 31m passengers not knowing who will run the services they rely on from December 10 this year.

Mr Francis added: ‘The Green Party wants the franchise to be run by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways (DOR) from December 10th. DOR already operates the East Coast franchise, after the previous private operator withdrew prematurely, and as other franchises expire they too should be taken over by DOR. That way, we will get back a publicly owned and integrated railway without having to pay millions of pounds compensation to private operators.’

The Green Party stands for the renationalisation of all rail services in the UK, to ensure the best deal for rail users and all taxpayers. 

Since privatisation, public subsidy for rail services has doubled,while fares are higher than in any other country in Europe. 

Rail is vital to the UK’s transport needs, and this latest debacle shows that not only are private companies unable to deliver a cost effective, reliable service to the public, even the system by which franchises are awarded does not work.

Privatisation has failed the UK, and it’s time to bring a vital public service back into public ownership.

Greens: Bring railways back into public ownership

This week saw another price hike in rail fares. With the UK already having the highest rail fares in Europe, The Green Party calls for the British railway system to be come back into public ownership.  It has been approximated that “£1.2 billion of public money is lost each year as a direct result of privatisation and fragmentation”

The Green Party has condemned the rail fare rise of an average of 6.2% announced yesterday.

Alan Francis, Green Party Transport Speaker, said:

We need to make rail travel more affordable, not less. Many people have had their wages frozen for several years. These fare rises will hit them hard. This fares increase makes rail travel even more unaffordable each year and pushes people back into cars on our already congested roads. Instead of an RPI+3% formula we should have a RPI-X% formula so that fares are reduced in real terms each year.

Rail privatisation and fragmentation has been bad for the railways and for passengers and has significantly increased costs. These higher costs, as much as £1bn per year, are paid by both passengers and taxpayers. We favour the railways being brought back into the public sector and more integration. This would reduce costs and so allow lower fares. Consequently we believe that as each TOC franchise ends it should be retained in the public sector, initially operated by the government-owned Directly Operated Railways. There would be no cost to the taxpayer.