New legislation to renationalise the railways

17th July 2024 | News / Media Coverage

 

Ellie Harrison from Bring Back British Rail was interviewed by Steve Holden on LBC News about new legislation announced in today’s King’s Speech to renationalise the railways.

Extract from The King’s Speech 2024:

“A Bill will be introduced to allow local leaders to take control of their local bus services [Better Buses Bill]. My Ministers will bring forward legislation to improve the railways by reforming rail franchising, establishing Great British Railways and bringing train operators into public ownership [Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill, Rail Reform Bill].

Taken together these policies will enhance Britain’s position as a leading industrial nation and enable the country to take advantage of new opportunities that can promote growth and wealth creation.”

Great British Railways – a new publicly-owned system

13th June 2024 | News

The Labour Party’s manifesto for the General Election on 4 July, commits to setting up Great British Railways – the new arm’s length public body which will own, plan and run our railways in the public interest.

This will be created in two stages. Firstly, by renationalising the ten rail franchises which are still privately run, when their current contracts end. This should happen between between September 2024 – October 2027 (see ‘Our Pathway to Public Ownership‘ graphic below for exact dates).

And secondly, by preparing the legislation necessary to create the new Great British Railways body (see Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways for more detail). Below is an extract from the manifesto, so we can hold them to account.

This also contains some important pledges on bringing bus networks back into public control (through bus ‘franchising’) and enabling regional transport authorities to set up new publicly-owned operators in order to deliver fully-integrated public transport.

Whilst this is a massive step in the right direction, Labour’s plans fail to commit to bringing the profiteering Rolling Stock Companies back into public ownership.

They also still want to allow private operators to run some ‘Open Access’ rail services, which will lead to unnecessary complexity for passengers, be “the enemy of a rational timetable” according to Christian Wolmar, and allow continued profit leakage from the system.

We will be campaigning to ensure Great British Railways becomes a reality and that all elements of the system are eventually brought back into public ownership.

Extract from Labour Party Manifesto 2024:

A modern transport network

“Labour will overhaul Britain’s railways. Fourteen years of Conservative neglect have failed passengers, businesses and taxpayers. We will put passengers at the heart of the service by reforming the railways and bringing them into public ownership. We will do this as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken through a failure to deliver, without costing taxpayers a penny in compensation.

Great British Railways will deliver a unified system that focuses on reliable, affordable, high-quality, and efficient services; along with ensuring safety and accessibility. It will be responsible for investment, day-to-day operational delivery and innovations and improvements for passengers, working with publicly-owned rail operators in Wales and Scotland. Mayors will have a role in designing the services in their areas. There will be a duty to promote and grow the use of rail freight. Open access operators are an important part of the rail system and will have an ongoing role. Labour will also create a tough new passenger watchdog, focused on driving up standards.

Local communities have lost control over their bus routes. Fares have increased, routes have disappeared, and services are unreliable. Building on the work of Labour mayors, we will reform the broken system through new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services, and we will lift the ban on municipal ownership. This will give local communities in England control over routes and schedules.

Under the Conservatives, transport services have remained fragmented and inefficient with companies and sectors failing to speak to and plan with each other. Labour will give mayors the power to create unified and integrated transport systems, allowing for more seamless journeys, and to promote active travel networks. Labour will also develop a long-term strategy for transport, ensuring transport infrastructure can be delivered efficiently and on time.”

Labour commits to return rail to public ownership

25th April 2024 | News

Our pathway to public ownership

We’re delighted to see the Labour Party publish Getting Britain Moving: Labour’s Plan to Fix Britain’s Railways today.

The plan commits Labour to bringing our railways back into public ownership within the next parliamentary term, if they win the next General Election.

‘Our Pathway to Public Ownership‘ graphic above details the contract end dates for the ten franchises which are still privately run – showing that the process should be complete by October 2027.

This will allow time to prepare the legislation necessary to create Great British Railways – the new arm’s length public body which will own, plan and run our railways.

National Railway Museum Collection

18th April 2024 | News

National Railway Museum

In 2023, Bring Back British Rail founder Ellie Harrison was approached by archivists at the National Railway Museum in York about their programme of contemporary collecting aimed at preserving recent stories about the railways and the impact they have on our lives.

Several pieces of campaign ephemera and merchandise were donated to the collection and can now be viewed in the Museum’s online catalogue, and in future exhibitions.

Alongside these items, Harrison also arranged the donation of the Rail Bunting made by the Craftivist Collective in 2011 for A Railway Adventure – a Climate Rush campaign for cheaper train fares in collaboration with Bring Back British Rail.

Our Pathway to Public Ownership

11th December 2023 | News

Bring Back British Rail was founded in 2009 to popularise the idea of bringing our railways back into public ownership. We have collected more than 150,000 signatures across various petitions during this time with numerous successes, most notably seeing rail renationalisation reinstated as Labour party policy in 2015.

We also led a successful legal action against the Department for Transport (DfT) which resulted in the EastCoast mainline being taken back into public ownership in May 2018. And our campaign to bring ScotRail back into public ownership (first launched in 2014, then relaunched in 2020 during the pandemic), led to the Scottish Government’s decision to end their contract with Abellio in March 2021.

Seven of Britain’s rail franchises are now back in public ownership. After a decade-and-a-half of campaigning, we can now finally see the end in sight. Labour has pledged to bring the remaining rail franchises “back into public ownership as contracts expire”, and then to re-unify them under once single identity and one ‘guiding mind’.

The next General Election must take place before 28 January 2025. If Labour wins this, as polls suggest, our research shows that all the current contracts with private operators controlled by the DfT (including even the recently agreed Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry contracts) will end either their initial term, or their extension period, under the next parliamentary term.

This presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity which cannot be missed.

DfT rail contract expiration dates:

* Already in public ownership (the ScotRail, Caledonian Sleeper and Transport for Wales Rail contracts are controlled by their respective devolved governments and are also all now in public ownership).

It’s time to kick FirstGroup out our our railways

19th February 2023 | News

Kick First Out

Did you know that FirstGroup plc is the main player hiding behind four of our failing train operating companies, which have been causing misery for millions of passengers: Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway?

Three or these contracts are up for renewal this year. We cannot allow the Department for Transport to reward First’s failure. Please join our Kick First Out! Avanti & TransPennine Passenger Rally at the DfT of Monday 20 March 2023, 10am

Kick First Out! Avanti & TransPennine Passenger Rally
Monday 20 March 2023, 10am
Department for Transport
33 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 4DR

We will be submitting our petition to Bring our West Coast rail services back into public ownership to Transport Secretary Mark Harper MP, so please make sure you sign the petition in advance.

Sign the Petition

Please register on Eventbrite if you’re coming to the Passenger Rally so we can keep track of numbers: kickfirstout.eventbrite.com

Share our #KickFirstOut graphic on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The crisis on Avanti West Coast is escalating

6th September 2022 | News / Petition

Make West Coast Public

The crisis on Avanti West Coast is escalating.

Sign the Petition

On 14 August 2022, Avanti – part-owned by FirstGroup and Trenitalia (Italy’s state-owned rail operator!) – drastically reduced the timetable on our West Coast Main Line.

Avanti is now running less than half of the usual services between London and our big north western cities: Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Carlisle, Glasgow and more.

On 2 September, Avanti’s £273,000-per-year boss Phil Whittingham announced he was leaving to “pursue other executive leadership opportunities”.

The company is in total disarray.

Meanwhile, on 4 September it was reported that the Department for Transport (DfT) is still planning to renew Avanti’s contract (which expires on 16 October) for another 10-years.

This is not any old rail contract either – it’s the so-called ‘West Coast Partnership’, which could see useless profiteers Avanti handed the keys to run the first services on our new HS2 line that will have been built with close to £100 billion of public money.

This must be stopped. Today our lawyers written to the DfT to demand they take these concerns seriously and act urgently to bring our West Coast Main Line back into public ownership (like LNER, Northern and Southeastern already are).

Sign the Petition

Please help keep the pressure up by signing our petition and sharing details on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.