‘On track, not offshore’

We are pleased that this Labour government, elected two years ago, has started to deliver on two of its key manifesto pledges: to bring in A New Deal for Working People, the biggest increase in workers’ rights for a generation, and bring Britain’s railways back into public ownership with the Railways Bill which is now going through the House of Lords.

Britain’s railway infrastructure – the track, the signalling, and the level crossings, the bridges, culverts, and viaducts, as well as most of the stations on the rail network – are publicly-owned by Network Rail. Network Rail has been responsible for our rail infrastructure for the last 24 years, since Railtrack, the private company that ran it following John Major’s ill-advised privatisation of British Rail in 1994 until 2002, cut too many corners but still couldn’t turn a profit and was found responsible for the fatal train crashes at Southall and Ladbroke Grove.

Britain’s 14 passenger train companies, privatised by the Tories, are being brought back under the DfT and, eventually, Great British Railways, which of course we welcome. Labour will then have put the wheels and the steel back together – the passenger Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and Network Rail – a policy for which ASLEF has pushed since 1994.

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But there are two glaring exceptions to the new public ownership rule – the freight operating companies (who perpetually go after each other’s existing freight traffic, rather than trying to grow the business of freight on rail); and the rolling stock companies.

The rail freight sector needs help from the government – support, subsidy, call it what you will, to level up the playing field with road haulage – and we are pushing hard for that. Not just for our members who work in the rail freight sector, but because it makes sense for the environment and the economy.

The privatisation of the Rolling Stock Operating Companies (RoSCos) in 1994 was a disgrace. A few companies picked up public property – the locomotives and the carriages – for a fraction of their true value and a few people became multi-millionaires overnight. It was, and is, a national scandal.

Rather than buying their own rolling stock, the TOCs and FOCs (Freight Operating Companies) rent their trains on extremely lucrative short- or long-term leasing agreements. Lucrative, that is, for the three private RoSCos: Porterbrook, Angel Trains, and Eversholt. 

In the year 2024-2025 passenger fare income was £11.5 billion (84.56% of operating expenditure) as total train operator expenditure was £13.4 billion. Leasing costs for the TOCs were a staggering £4.1 billion (30.6%).

In the last five years the RoSCos have taken £2.9 billion in profits and dividends out of the industry – money haemorrhaging from the network, often being shifted offshore to tax havens, which could have been used here in Britain to improve our infrastructure or reduce fares for passengers.

The result is staggeringly inefficient – with trains sitting in storage, not being used, varying types of rolling stock across the network, meaning additional training time for staff to learn the workings of different stock – and it means there is no strategic vision or long-term plan, which is what the railway needs if it is to be successful. 

In contrast, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, chose to purchase outright new rolling stock for Merseyrail in the north-west of England. He knows that buying, rather than leasing, the rolling stock will save Merseyrail, and taxpayers, millions of pounds in the medium- and long-term. It has also enabled much greater control over the design, integration, and maintenance strategy for the rolling stock. Transport for London also initially purchased the trains for its new Elizabeth line with a loan from the European Investment Bank.

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The Prime Minister has identified the deindustrialisation of Britain – particularly under the rapacious neoliberal governments of Margaret Thatcher, John Major, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson – as a significant reason for this country’s current plight. 

Bringing Britain’s rolling stock back under public control – so that we own, rather than lease, the trains – will not only save us billions but could also help our economy by building the rolling stock we need here in Britain. Using British steel and British workers to build the new British railway. 

Andy Burnham has talked this summer about the problem of de-industrialisation and the long shadow it casts over our country. Building our own rolling stock, here in Britain, will encourage innovation, create jobs, and re-industrialise key sectors of our economy.

That’s why we say it’s time we owned our own trains – to get our money back on track, not leaving it to move offshore.  It’s time  to get Britain moving on the right lines again.

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