15.07.13
RMT plans protests against East Coast re-privatisation
The RMT union is to hold protests on Thursday morning up and down the East Coast Main Line against the Government’s plans to hand control of services on the line back to the private sector via a franchise competition.
The union wants state-owned Directly Operated Railways to stay in charge, arguing that it has “provided an improved service and vastly more revenue for the Treasury”.
Its members will hold protests between 8am and 9am on Thursday at King’s Cross, Doncaster; Leeds, Wakefield, Newcastle, Berwick and Edinburgh Waverley.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The truth is that out of pure ideology, this Government is prepared to take a third gamble on their big-business friends in a desperate bid to privatise the East Coast Main Line before the election, even though they are well aware that the whole reckless exercise will cost the British public hundreds of millions of pounds in lost income.
“On Thursday we will take our case to the East Coast passengers and RMT will continue to fight not only to keep the East Coast in public ownership but to renationalise the entire network, ending the great rail rip-off once and for all."
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