The Green Party has given its full support to today’s demonstration, organised by the campaign group Action for Rail, against the proposed re-privatisation of the East Coast Mainline railway. The party has called upon the government to listen to the demands of its travelling public with national support for renationalising the railways currently standing at over 70%.
Caroline Russell, the Green Party spokesperson for local transport said:
“I am proud to represent a party that stands resolutely in favour of the re-nationalisation of Britain’s railways. The re-nationalisation of the East Coast Mainline has offered a perfect example of the benefits that can be brought from public ownership and yet the government is still determined to sell-off this high-performing asset. Since the line was nationalised it has outperformed other train services and is currently returning more money back to the state than any other operator. Our question to the government is simple: what’s not to like?”
“Ownership of East Coast is an issue that affects train travellers from Edinburgh to London. Over half of those who use the service start or end their journey in London where commuters already enjoy the daily privilege of paying sky-high prices to stand in overcrowded trains. We don’t want to see them clobbered with more yet more hikes in fares and a drop in performance. We want to see the East Coast Mainline retained in public ownership because we believe in valuing people before profit and in seeing travellers as passengers, not customers”.
Research from the group Campaign for Better Transport has found that the UK’s rail fares are currently the highest in the world whilst the network is almost half as efficient as European railways. The Green Party has been a strong proponent of the need to renationalise the railways in order to make tickets more affordable and to improve the level of service on offer.
The demonstration taking place today outside Westminster has been organised by the campaign group Action for Rail. Together with other groups including Bring Back British Rail and 38 Degrees the campaign will be handing in a petition of 20,000 signatures calling on the Secretary of State for Transport to put a stop to what the group sees as the needless, wasteful and unwanted privatisation of East Coast Main Line.