Two specific ways Labour can begin to bring rail back under public control

The Labour Party have offered up two bold policies for London in the space of a week. Both are to be welcomed. Following Ed Miliband’s pledge to open up the Mayoral selection process with a primary, Maria Eagle has called for the Mayor to take control of London’s overground rail lines in a bid to end the craziness imposed on the network at privatisation.

Handing Transport for London (TfL) control of the ten franchised lines that run into London – in a similar arrangement to that of the successful London Overground – would be good for the railways and good for Londoners. The network functioned best under British Rail when it was split into three main passenger sectors – InterCity, Regional Railways and Network Southeast. Eagle’s plan would in effect be a part recreation of Network Southeast which covered all the commuter routes out of London.

Already, London Overground – the newest, orange line on the tube map – has taken over several overground services, including the local trains to Watford and the old North London line, and created a highly successful network. Most importantly, the service standards on these lines are very high. All have full time staff, new rolling stock and accept Oyster card. For Eagle’s policy to be a success, the lines she proposes handing to the Mayor would have to meet similar standards in order to ensure high passenger numbers. This is something London Overground has achieved this admirably. Indeed, the four carriage trains on the London Overground are already being extended to five cars because of the popularity of the services.

The success of London Overground has demonstrated that high class public services are achievable, popular and possess the ability to attract people on to public transport. Strikingly, the high standards on the publicly owned London Overground network contrast with some very shoddy services on parts of the privately owned London commuter network.

In an ideal world, all London commuter services would be provided by TfL, and the fares structures, which currently differ between National Rail and the London Underground, integrated under a unified system. The lack of integration under the current system sees passengers on National Rail services pay more than those on the Underground disadvantaging south Londoners because of the lack of Tube services south of the Thames.

Eagle’s next target should be to demand the recreation of InterCity, the former British Rail brand for long haul passenger services. With all the main long distance franchises, except East Coast, now not due to be renewed until after the general election, there is scope to recreate a publicly owned InterCity. Tragically, in a vindictive and cynical move the coalition is trying to speed up the reletting of the East Coast franchise which has been run very capably in public hands since 2009. However, a large coalition of trade unions, passenger groups and environmental organisations is trying to stop the reprivatisation, supported by Eagle who has spoken out commendably against the move.

Even without East Coast, however, re-creating InterCity would be a popular move which would markedly improve the efficiency and performance of the network. Moreover, such a move would see the railways start to slip quietly back into public ownership without creating a great hoo-ha over renationalisation. Long may the Party continue to think boldly on issues relating to the railways and our capital.