Card vote on rail renationalisation

Monday, 27 September 2004 12:00 AM

The vote on rail renationalisation is proving too close to call, as conference organisers have requested a card vote with prospect raised of a further vote if the margin is tight.

The resolution, backed by the Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA), calls on the Party to commit itself to rail renationalisation. In advance of the conference, many commentators believed that the Government would be vulnerable on the vote.

Moving the motion, the general secretary of TSSA, Gerry Doherty, described privatisation as one of the "most blatant, bare-faced robberies of the British people."

In an attack against the "fat cats" he accused of running rail franchises, Mr Doherty said: "We are paying more money, vast amounts more, for a worst service to the private sector"

He argued that TSSA's option, of just not renewing franchise when they expire, "won't cost a penny" to the public purse.

Speaking against the rebel motion, the Transport Secretary Alistair Darling, said that he disagreed both "philosophically" and practically with the position that there should be no private sector involvement in rail, and urged delegates to consider the costs involved.

Mr Darling said bluntly that "We do not have £20 billion spare" - the figure the Government believes would be necessary to buy back the railways from banks and the private sector.

He sharply disagreed with delegates' comments that the amount of money spent on rail, and the state subsidies, meant money was being wasted, saying: "We are spending more because we should be spending more money on the railways"

"Yes we do subsidise the railways- so does every country in Europe and we do have some control through Network Rail."

There are a "lot of good things happening on the railways and we shouldn't condemn it" he concluded.

Mr Darling also pointed out that the railways "need every penny they can get" to counteract "decades of underinvestment" and said that they couldn't afford to lose the £70 million a week that comes from the private sector.

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