Rail nationalisation not a silver bullet, says Labour government

Public ownership of the UK’s railways is not a “silver bullet” for guaranteeing a better service for passengers, the transport secretary has said.

Heidi Alexander told a gathering of rail industry leaders in Manchester that cancellations on the state-run Northern are at “more than 10%” and many in the “region have been let down for too long”.

Alexander also set out her priorities for the year ahead which include “reforming fares and ticketing” to ensure “a best price guarantee” as well as publishing performance data at stations.

But shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon said “quick fixes and hollow announcements will not improve services for passengers or drive economic growth”.

Re-nationalising train operating companies was a key part of Labour’s manifesto.

Northern was taken into public ownership under the Conservative government in 2020 but its performance has failed to improve.

Alexander said that she and Rail Minister Lord Peter Hendy will hold the Department for Transport Operator’s (DfTO) “feet to the fire” to deliver Northern’s published improvement plan, although she provided no further detail on how.

The operating division already runs 25% of train journeys on the franchises it controls: Northern, LNER, TransPennine and Southeastern. C2C, South Western and Greater Anglia will be added during this year.

In her speech, she said there was a need for unification across the train operators and Network Rail, which manages the railway infrastructure.

This would allow them “to work closer together, to rip out duplication, simplify the management of track and train and create greater accountability”.

The government is continuing to develop its new operating body, Great British Railways.

Alexander said the DfTO is key to ensure that Great British Railway “doesn’t end up as an umbrella of 16 separate organisations, each with their own incentives, back office systems and structures but instead becomes one integrated team, relentlessly focused on the passenger”.

Among her priorities, Alexander said there will be more trials of pay as you go as well as more innovation around the use of AI to improve passenger experience and efficiency.

Great British Railways is a publicly-owned body that will run both the network tracks and trains and will oversee the rail system across England, Wales, and Scotland.