‘Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised’
23rd March 2020 | News
Today, as a result of the Coronavirus Outbreak, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps utilised Section 118 of the Railways Act 1993 to suspend all current franchise agreements with private Train Operating Companies and replace them with temporary Emergency Measures Agreements.
This led The Guardian newspaper to report that ‘Britain’s trains have effectively been nationalised‘, despite this actually looking more like a massive bailout for failing private companies whose share prices then surged as a result.
These Emergency Measures Agreements also only apply to franchises currently let by the Department for Transport and, of course, exclude LNER and Northern, which are already in public ownership – a fact we were celebrating at the start of the month:
So, the new Emergency Measures Agreements do not apply to:
• the ScotRail or the Caledonian Sleeper franchises let by the Scottish Government which has its own Emergency Measures Agreements in place,
• the Transport for Wales Rail franchise let by the Welsh Government,
• the TfL Rail or London Overground contracts let by Transport for London, or
• the Merseyrail contract let by Merseytravel
Please explore the ‘Franchises‘ pages of our website (first launched in 2015 and now updated regularly) to find out who runs the railways in your area, and how you can help campaign for public ownership:
📢 Read our letter to Heidi Alexander demanding urgent action to stop the Office of Rail & Road awarding new contracts to private companies 🚆💸 Allowing 'open access' operators to continue will completely undermine our new publicly-owned #GreatBritishRailways before it has even begun 👇 @top fans We Own It
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📣 Heidi Alexander for Swindon South, we need an immediate moratorium on open access applications! 🚆 When East Coast was in public ownership from 2009-2015, it returned £1bn in profits to the taxpayer 💷 Now publicly-owned London North Eastern Railway requires millions in subsidy because FirstGroup is sucking all the profit out of the line with its open access operator, Lumo 💸 @top fans ... See MoreSee Less
Rail regulator rejects West Coast Main Line applications due to insufficient capacity | Office of Rail and Road
www.orr.gov.uk
The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has rejected applications from three companies seeking track access contracts with Network Rail to run services on the West Coast Main Line (WCML).11 CommentsComment on Facebook
Email your MP today to ensure they 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 in the new #RailwaysBill 🚆 Help us 𝗳𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 who are lobbying like crazy behind the scenes 🤑
Take action now 👇 @top fans
📨 weownit.org.uk/act-now/great-british-railways-action ... See MoreSee Less
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🚊 Watch the recording of last night's Make Great British Railways Great - event and take action here: weownit.org.uk/act-now/great-british-railways-action ... See MoreSee Less
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Do you want to find out what's at stake in the new Railways Bill? 🚆 Don't miss this important online event this 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟰 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲, 𝟳𝗽𝗺 👇 Let's Make Great British Railways Great! @top fans
Register at: weownit.org.uk/act-now/events We Own It ... See MoreSee Less
This content isn't available at the moment
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it, or it's been deleted.2 CommentsComment on Facebook