End 25 Years of the Great Rail Rip Off

RMT has demanded that the government strips Arriva/Deutsche Bahn of the Northern Rail franchise and the routes returned to public ownership following the news that mismanagement has seen the taxpayer subsidy soar to £282 million.

The company is also now locked in crisis talks with the DfT and demanding an even bigger public bail-out.

The shocking news, which mirrors the Virgin collapse on the East Coast Main Line earlier this year, comes on the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Act bringing in rail privatisation in Britain.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that Arriva Rail North, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, was a basket case rail franchise sucking up well over a quarter of a billion pounds a year in public bail-outs while wrecking service standards, ripping up the safety rule book and threatening to throw the guards off over half their trains.

“This scandal needs to end immediately and that means the government taking immediate routes into direct public ownership and control with the services run on the basis of safety, security and access and not private profit.

“With reports that Trans Pennine Express is in similar dire straits this national disgrace on our privatised railways, coming exactly 25 years after the Act was passed ushering in the Great British Rail Rip-Off, has to be called to a halt before irreversible damage is done.

“If Virgin can be kicked off the East Coast and the lines returned to public ownership there is no excuse whatsoever for dragging out the death throes of Arriva on Northern Rail,” he said.

PRIVATISATION TIMELINE

1991 European Commission introduces rail directive 91/440/EEC on July 29 demanding the separation of infrastructure and operations, open access for international undertakings and the introduction of track access charges.

1992 The Railways Regulations 1992 introduced under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 in order to comply with the directive.

1993 Tory government privatises British Rail under The Railways Act 1993.

2001 EU’s First Railway Package demands ‘liberalisation’ of rail freight, implemented in Britain in November 2005.

2004 Second Railway Package demands open access for all types of rail freight services by 2006 and establishes a European Railway Agency to oversee implementation of EU directives.

2007 Third Railway Package demands ‘liberalisation’ of passenger rail services requiring open access in all EU member states by 2010.

2009 Lisbon Treaty removes the national veto on transport, transferring decisions to Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) allowing member states to be outvoted.

2012 First Railway Package ‘recast’ to establish a single European railway area and outlaws member states from using the "holding model" to manage infrastructure and operations within the same parent company.

2013 European Commission publishes a Fourth Railway Package which requires the compulsory competitive tendering of all rail services by December 2019.