Labour's "Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act" sets the stage for the renationalisation of the railways in Britain over the next 3+ years. However, the day after the bill became law, then-Transport Secretary Louise Haigh suddenly resigned! She said she "didn't want to be a distraction" after one newspaper exposed an already-known minor misdemeanour she'd committed 10 years before...

    Nobody bought this. In fact, for Labour's pro- business image, she was already a distraction. During Starmer's fancy "Investment Summit" she'd criticised private ferry company P&O over the way it treated its workforce, just when Starmer was wooing its owner, Dubai's DP World for investment. And "worse", she also agreed a pay rise for train drivers!

    The more "business-friendly" Heidi Alexander, will now oversee rail renationalisation. But in fact, 40% of the railways have already been taken back by the state under the Tories! And if the remainder will now join them, it's only because they aren't viable and profitable businesses. The yearly government subsidy to private rail operators has nearly tripled to £13bn since 2019! Private operators have never been prepared to invest to keep the railways running reliably and safely. Just like Thames Water, in fact, whose profit-making and total lack of investment has poisoned rivers and the water in the taps!

    Today 30% of trains don't run on time. There is a shortage of workers across the network. All the Train Operating Companies rely on overtime and rest-day working to run even a basic timetable. And just like those other bosses at the "public service" (but privatised) Royal Mail, they use agency workers to deliver a service that's going down the drain.

    So, will anything change when the state runs the railways? Starmer already said there's no spare cash. For his government, there's no question of taking the money from the billions in profits that railway companies and shareholders have made over the past 30 years!

    Alexander will try to keep the current 100 + divisions, where each line, station or section doesn't just have different livery and uniforms, but also different Ts&Cs for workers. Yes, because the 220,000-strong railway workforce is potentially a force to be reckoned with, if it comes together as "one". Which is why, precisely, railway workers know exactly what they have to do!