Friday, 29 Mar 2024

Tories pave way to take South Western Railway back into public ownership

Tory ministers have paved the way to take a stricken train firm back into public ownership.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced today that South Western Railway (SWR) was “not sustainable in the long term”, after the company declared earlier this month that it made £139 million loss in the last financial year.

Unreliable services and slow financial growth meant that SWR’s performance was "significantly below expectation”, Mr Shapps said.

SWR had “not yet failed to meet financial commitments”, but the department was examining “contingency plans” to keep commuters moving, including short term contracts and tougher targets.

Mr Shapps insisted that SWR would continue to operate as usual, saying that the changes would have “no material impact on SWR services or staff".

The statement also criticised a “number of franchises” across the country who were failing to offer reliable services for passengers, and said there were “legitimate questions on whether the current franchising model is viable”.


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“The railway is a public service,” Mr Shapps said. “People rely upon it to support their way of life, livelihoods, education and healthcare, and it is why this Government has committed to introducing minimum service levels during times of strike action.”

Keith Williams, head of an independent review into Britain’s railways, has stated that he believes franchising in its current form is unsustainable, and is set to call for widespread reforms.

The statement came after Mr Shapps announced earlier this month that Northern franchise would not last more than “a number of months” because of its dire financial status.

The transport secretary also hit out at SWR strikes, which lasted for 27 days in December, claiming that they were “not about safety, accessibility or helping passengers”.

Mick Cash, the general secretary of RMT union which organised the strikes and has balloted to do so again, praised the proposal to bring the company into public hands. He described the government as a “puppet for the rail companies” and accused them of “throwing good public money after bad and trying to breathe life into the rotting corpse of privatised rail”.

"Instead of dreaming up new ways to subsidise private sector profits by attacking civil liberties, he (Grant Shapps) should stop pushing cost-cutting driver-only operation and bring SWR into public ownership, running it in the interests of passengers and workers, not his mates in the City,” he added.

The owners of SWR, FirstGroup and MTR, said they “continue to be in ongoing and constructive discussions with the Department of Transport” about the future of the franchise, and were keen to find a solution which was right for “our customers, our shareholders and the Government”.

They said they would respond to the Government’s request for proposal in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson for South Western Railway said: “Together with Network Rail, we are working hard to improve our performance and have set up a joint performance improvement centre to address specific issues head on.”

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