Jeremy Corbyn, who was elected as new leader of labour party on 12th September, is expected to reveal the plan of renationalising the railways. Corbyn wants to introduce the ‘People’s Railways’ in England and for that; he will have to renationalize the whole system line by line. They will possibly regain the control of franchises when they expire. Five out of 16 are going to expire between 2020 and 2025 including TransPennine, East Coast and Southern express.
It is expected that the full proposal of ‘People’s Railways’ will be defined at the annual conference of labour’s in Brighton in between September 27-30.
“We know there is overwhelming support from the British people for a People’s Railway, better and more efficient services, proper integration and fairer fares. On this issue, it won’t work to have a nearly-but-not-quite position. Labour will commit to a clear plan for a fully integrated railway in public ownership,” says Corbyn to the independent on Sunday.
It is reported that the people railways plan proposed by Jeremy is to please his supporters, specifically the transport unions who helped him in winning the contest of labour leadership. Justine greening, secretary of conservative international development and previous transport secretary baptized the plan as “Ideological joyride”. Greening made this statement on Andrew Marr show on BBC. She also stated that it was imperative to “get on with the plan we have in place”.
But it was shadow foreign secretary, Hillary Benn, who said on the BBC show that instead of labour’s, conservatives were ideological. Benn insisted that Britain needs an integrated transport system, where passengers do not have to purchase different tickets for different lines.
A survey by Youglow in 2014 showed that 60 % of the people support the renationalisation of England railways.
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