RAIL chiefs must do more to satisfy passengers – but the system should stay in private hands, according to a former UK Transport Minister.
Tom Harris says “politically charged calls for blanket nationalisation” could lead to higher costs and poorer services.
In a report commissioned by ScotRail franchise holder Abellio, the ex-Labour MP says the Scottish Government “should not throw the baby out with bathwater”.
However, he says UK-wide track and infrastructure owner Network Rail should undergo a “radical reorganisation of its own structures” for greater local accountability, with the change to be piloted in Scotland.
Harris has already called for authority over Network Rail to be devolved to Holyrood, something the Scottish Government has long said would deliver “benefits” for passengers and freight operators.
Launching the paper yesterday, he suggested media coverage had fuelled negativity about the current set-up, stating: “When it comes to the railways, bad news is big news and good news is no news.
“Because of that, we’d be forgiven for thinking that our railways are a disaster, but this is manifestly not true. In fact, for the whole of this century we have seen a remarkable railway renaissance.
“Our polling research has shown that the public in general are complimentary about the performance of Scotland’s railways. However, there are problems, and those problems have led to some politically charged calls for blanket nationalisation.
“The Scottish Government should not ignore this, but also it should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. If it feels the need to change the franchise model, it should consider moving to a concession model where the government shoulders both profit and risk, but the private sector runs the service.
“It would be expensive, childish and counter-productive to dispense with the clear and indisputable benefits of private sector involvement in our railways, without which we would not have experienced the renaissance we have seen.”
According to a report by the Common Weal think tank for rail workers union TSSA last November, ScotRail could be nationalised by 2020 in a move that may lead to 6.5% fare cuts.
Abellio – a subsidiary of Dutch state-owned operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen – holds the franchise until 2025 and the date suggested by the TSSA report is contingent on the failure to meet contractual obligations.
Earlier this year TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes renewed his call to bring Scotland’s services back into public ownership after UK Transport Minister Chris Grayling stripped Virgin Trains of its contract for the Edinburgh-London East Coast Main Line amidst profit issues.
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