Wednesday 1 July 2009

A return to British Rail

I hope that the announcement this morning of the government's decision to take the East coast train line back under its control could herald the start of a gradual re nationalisation of the lines.

Labour's decision not to return the trains to the public sector was a big mistake when they came to power.

We now have a situation where companies have bid far too much for the current round of franchises,putting all their efforts in collecting revenue and starving the infrastructure of much needed investment.

National Express' decision to overbid for the lucrative East Coast line forced it to promise to pay £2b over eight years,a decision which has resulted in the resignation of its chief executive and facing a take over bid from First.

This is not the way to run our transport infrastructure

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