{"id":15241,"date":"2018-05-17T15:05:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T14:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15241"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:44","slug":"east-coast-rail-renationalised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15241","title":{"rendered":"End of the line"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has called for the East Coast rail service to be permanently taken back into public ownership, following the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to temporarily renationalise it in the wake of its operators failing to meet payments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Transport secretary Chris Grayling announced\u00c2\u00a0yesterday (May 16) that the London to Edinburgh service will return to public ownership<\/a> on June 24 until 2020, after operators Stagecoach and Virgin could longer meet payments on the \u00c2\u01413.3bn contract.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The line, on which three franchises have failed in a decade despite being run at a profit when it was publicly owned between 2009 and 2015, will be rebranded as the London and North East Railway and be operated by the Arup firm under government control.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grayling told the House of Commons that he decided to appoint an \u00e2\u20ac\u015boperator of last resort\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 rather than allow Virgin and Stagecoach to negotiate new terms.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grayling insisted taxpayers had not lost money from the franchise\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure, saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe route continues to generate substantial returns for the government. It is not a failing railway… However, Virgin and Stagecoach got their bids wrong.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Virgin or Stagecoach could be prevented from bidding for other rail<\/a> franchises, Grayling added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have paid a high financial and reputational price.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Responding the announcement, Unite said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bafter a hat-trick of failures on the East Coast mainline in the last 10 years with ministers having to intervene, now is the time for this service to be brought back under state ownership permanently\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite national lead officer for the rail industry Hugh Roberts said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is clear that the privatisation<\/a> of the railways \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the misguided brainchild of John Major\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tory government in the 1990s \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has hit the buffers. It has reached the end of the line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBringing back the East Coast mainline under public control permanently should be the first stage in returning the whole network to public ownership.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Roberts said rail privatisation has been an \u00e2\u20ac\u015bexpensive and ideologically-driven\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 failure that has been constant drain on the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt would be best for the economy, the Treasury and the hard-pressed rail traveller paying through the nose for their tickets, if ministers blew the whistle on rail privatisation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tweeting after Grayling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s announcement, shadow chancellor John McDonnell mocked the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dismal record on the railways.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McDonnell tweeted<\/a>, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGood to see Grayling implementing first stage of Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Manifesto promise to renationalise the railways.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m right in saying that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s now nationalised more railways than any Labour minister in six decades. Come on Chris, East Coast line today, the whole system tomorrow.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has called for the East Coast rail service to be permanently taken back into public ownership, following the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to temporarily renationalise it in the wake of its operators failing to meet payments.   Transport secretary Chris Grayling announced\u00c2\u00a0yesterday (May 16) that the London to Edinburgh service will return to public ownership on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[252,74,929],"wps_subtitle":"East Coast rail renationalised after failed private contract ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26185,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15241\/revisions\/26185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}