{"id":9134,"date":"2016-06-29T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T13:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9134"},"modified":"2016-06-30T10:31:40","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T09:31:40","slug":"one-way-ticket-to-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9134","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098One way ticket to disaster\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Network Rail \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a public body operating UK rail networks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has begun selling off assets valued at \u00c2\u01411.8bn in a bid to make up for a massive government funding shortfall.<\/p>\n

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But a new report<\/a> has found that the planned sell-off could end up costing the taxpayer more than \u00c2\u014110bn over the next decade, while also making rail journeys more costly for passengers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and less safe.<\/p>\n

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Electrical power assets were the first to go in Network Rail\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fire sale in early March of this year. But the organisation is also looking into selling 18 of the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major railway stations it owns, including Paddington, London Waterloo, and the major stations in Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and Reading.<\/p>\n

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Commercial properties \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including 5,000 railway arches, where so many small businesses set up shop \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are also set to go. While this move stands to raise millions of pounds, it would also mean significant loss of long-term rental income, all of which would be reinvested in improving the service.<\/p>\n

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The report, written by Transport for Quality of Life and commissioned by campaign group We Own It, ultimately concluded that the sell-off plans would mean billions of pounds of taxpayer money wasted on legal fees and administrative costs, in addition to loss of rental income.<\/p>\n

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More expensive <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Plans to fragment the Network Rail system by selling off different parts to different companies, the report notes, will make the whole system much more expensive to run\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the cost will eventually be passed on to the passenger in the form of higher fares.<\/p>\n

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Passenger safety, too, would be at risk as crashes could become more likely. When Network Rail\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s privatised predecessor Rail Track oversaw the network, crashes were common \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the problem reached a high point when a train crashed in Hatfield and killed four people in 2000.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a one-way ticket to disaster,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the report noted.<\/p>\n

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We Own It director Cat Hobbs noted that train stations, property and assets are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpart of our railway and belong to all of us.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf they are sold off we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll all lose out on the income they bring in forever more,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs passengers and taxpayers, we want Network Rail to give the red signal to these sell-off plans. They should be managing the railway for our benefit and reinvesting profits, not giving them away.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite, together with the TUC and all the major rail unions including the RMT, TSSA and Aslef, have come together under the banner of Action for Rail<\/a> to oppose Network Rail\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s asset sell-offs, among other moves to privatise rail transport.<\/p>\n

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Action for Rail has called on the government to end its fragmentation of Network Rail and to bring it under full public ownership. At the moment, Network Rail is a not-for-dividend company, which means that it must reinvest all of its profits in maintaining and improving the network. It was reclassified as a public body in 2014 and its \u00c2\u014142bn in debts were transferred to the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s balance sheet.<\/p>\n

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In March of this year, the government commissioned a report<\/a> into the future funding of Network Rail. While the report, written by HS1 chief executive Nicola Shaw, ruled out full privatisation of Network Rail, it called for more private finance and local devolution.<\/p>\n

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Unite and other rail unions are concerned that both of these moves \u00e2\u20ac\u201c private investment and breaking up the network into regional routes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will only serve to fragment Network Rail at passengers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 expense, while also hitting transport workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay, terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

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Body of evidence<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Unite assistant general secretary for transport Diana Holland hailed this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s We Own It report as the latest which adds to the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bgrowing body of evidence that privatisation of our public services benefits none of us – except of course to line the pockets of privateers who are literally gambling with our services.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs the report rightly points out, Network Rail needs to operate as a coordinated national service, not a fragmented one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe average person will be doubly hit by Network Rail\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fire sales \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they will be slammed both as taxpayers, who will be hit with a \u00c2\u014110bn bill over the next decade, and also as passengers who will face higher fares.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd as the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest transport union, we know only too well the price transport workers pay through privatisation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur history of rail and bus privatisation and deregulation has shown that letting in the private sector does not make the service \u00e2\u20ac\u0098more competitive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the race to the bottom to cut costs and drive up profits means hard-won pay, terms and conditions are under threat, a poorer service that is more expensive for passengers with built-in inefficiencies, and a service that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less safe, too.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s remember why Network Rail was introduced in the first place,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Holland noted.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIts private sector predecessor Rail Track was a disaster.\u00c2\u00a0 Our biggest fear is that privatisation will mean another Hatfield crash just waiting to happen. What the government needs to do is actually fund Network Rail properly and protect it under full public ownership.\u00c2\u00a0 This government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s privatisation and austerity agenda is destroying our public services and it needs to end now.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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@hajera_unite<\/p>\n

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Network Rail \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a public body operating UK rail networks \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has begun selling off assets valued at \u00c2\u01411.8bn in a bid to make up for a massive government funding shortfall.     But a new report has found that the planned sell-off could end up costing the taxpayer more than \u00c2\u014110bn over the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[252,74],"wps_subtitle":"Network Rail sell off could cost billions","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9142,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9134\/revisions\/9142"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}