Stop the rail sell-offs!
Even the government admits the rail system is a mess. Its solution could make matters worse…
Even the government admits the rail system is a mess. Its solution could make matters worse…
The fragmentation of Britain’s railways has its roots in an EEC directive (91/440/EEC) handed down in 1991. This directive decreed the separation of infrastructure from train operations, with the express purpose of creating a competitive market. It was the blueprint used by John Major for the Conservative government’s privatisation of Britain’s railways from 1994 to 1996.
The Labour Party is mired in monumental confusion over the future direction of the railways. Nationally, its policy is to return the railways to public ownership and control. But since privatisation, whenever it has been in power, it has done the reverse.
Rail workers in the RMT union have scored a significant victory in their battle with private train companies to secure the future of guards on trains. It’s part of a wider fight…
The Scottish transport secretary refused to face union delegation fighting for the retention of skilled railway work in Scotland.
11 February 2019
RMT members on Northern Trains look to have brought their two-year dispute over guards on trains to a successful conclusion. Talks will now take place to put an agreement into practice.
Members of rail union RMT in the north of England have now taken their 40th day of strike action.
Continued membership of the EU – and some pro-EU unions are pushing hard in that direction – would doom Britain’s railways to eternal privatisation.
Designs for two new stations which will form a key part of the HS2 rail plan have now been unveiled.
24 August 2018
Network Rail has confirmed that it will use the freedoms presented by next year’s Brexit to cut needless costs.
It’s been called the biggest disaster to befall our railways in peacetime history – caused by the complexity of the privatised rail industry and an inept government that doesn’t understand how the industry works…
As parts of the rail network fail and the government’s Whitehall farce leads to ever more absurdities, the campaign to bring railways back into public ownership is gathering momentum around Britain…
26 April 2018
A national protest against Driver Only Operation outside Parliament on 25 April drew rail workers and union banners from many towns and regions across the country.
16 April 2018
American private equity firm Apollo Management has made a bid for one of Britain’s largest bus and rail companies, First Group, which has rebuffed the initial bid.
17 January 2018
On the back of new contracts, Bombardier has announced more apprenticeships in Derby to work on the new Aventra trains.
The government talks about having a strategy, but the reality is that overambitious forecasts are likely to leave services cut, and taxpayers and passengers picking up the bill…
Disputes about staffing and pay are sweeping through the rail industry…
29 December 2017
Strikes to halt the removal of guards continue on many passenger franchises. The RMT announced further strike action extending into the new year in the separate disputes on Merseyrail, Northern, Greater Anglia, South Western Railways and Island Line.
The capitalist carousel that now typifies Britain’s railways continues as London Midland loses the franchise to operate routes across the region’s network.
Beset by EU-dictated cost rises, the transport secretary is cancelling a raft of plans to extend electrification across the rail network. The move has sparked fierce opposition, and not a little ridicule…
The RMT has called further strikes in Southern, Arriva Rail Northern and Merseyrail in September over the future of train guards.
29 June 2017
The SNP has pressed on with plans to break up British Transport Police despite widespread opposition from rail unions to police chiefs. This attempt to reinforce separatism went ahead despite union warnings that it would damage and not protect policing in Scotland.
Government cuts in funding to Network Rail threaten to precipitate a major skills shortage in the industry as well as threatening jobs and safety.
18 June 2017
Following the suicide bombing in Manchester rail union TSSA has demanded the SNP halt its plan to merge British Transport Police Scotland with Police Scotland.
Building the new Britain means building new railways, making the equipment here in Britain, and running the rail network in the way we decide, for the benefit of the people.
9 April 2017
RMT members chose to strike on Grand National day to get maximum publicity for their campaign of opposition to plans to introduce driver-only-operated trains
Britain’s railways have become a battleground as companies bent on profit look to cut corners…
Last year more than £90 million was paid out in dividends to the mainly state-owned Italian, French, Dutch and German rail companies running British rail franchises.
3 January 2017
Rail unions and passenger groups are kicking off the new year with two days of protests against high fares.
Under the EU our railways have been fragmented, privatised and sold off to foreign – mainly state-owned – companies. With independence looming, what now needs to be done?