08.05.09
RMT warns of “meltdown” as franchise chaos threatens to blow £2.5 billion hole in government rail budget
Britain’s biggest rail union, RMT, has warned of a meltdown on the rail network if the government fail to take decisive and urgent action to nationalise the East Coast line as debt-ridden franchise holder National Express lurches from crisis to crisis.
RMT said today that if the National Express East Coast franchise collapses it could lead to a domino effect hitting services right across the UK with the company being stripped of its East Anglia and c2c franchises. RMT is calling for an orderly return to direct public ownership.
On top of the National Express crisis, Stagecoach is currently in dispute with the DfT over its South West Trains franchise and Arriva is facing heavy losses on its Cross Country line. RMT estimates that the cumulative effect of collapsing franchises could blow a £2.5 billion hole in the government’s annual rail budget of £5 billion.
The East-Coast line, which links London with Edinburgh via York and Leeds, carries 17 million passengers a year and employs 3,100 staff. It is Britain’s most lucrative train franchise.
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said :
“The chaos facing the rail industry from the looming collapse of major franchises is unprecedented and we are calling on the government to step in now and begin the process of renationalisation to restore order to the railways.
“It would be political suicide for the government to bail out National Express and offer them a copper-bottomed management fee guarantee in return for ripping up the East Coast franchise. That would be reward for complete and abject failure on an epic scale and the British taxpayers would be up in arms.
“What we have now is sub-prime companies running essential public services and that’s the consequence of rail privatisation. Rather than reading ransom notes from these companies RMT will be stepping up the political and public campaign to get shot of them,” Bob Crow said.
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