Getting back on track

A correspondent to the York Press asked last week about cheaper rail fares. Read the response letter I sent below...

In response Owen Clayton (Hugh Bayley's inaction, 18th February), I am very happy to say that I fully support the campaign to cut the cost of rail fares. Surveys have shown that people in Britain are typically paying around 50% more those elsewhere in Europe for similar journeys.One factor that has exacerbated this problem is privatization.

Why do we have public subsidy being provided at one end of the system whilst massive private profits are creamed off at the other end? As an example, until 2007, HSBC rail (a rolling stock leasing company) were charging £120,000 plus VAT each year to Island Line Trains for each of six former London Underground units operating on the Isle of Wight Railway - although the trains had been built in 1938. This figure did not even include maintenance!

The government-owned East Coast franchise that has been introduced after the National Express fiasco should be a first step to bringing the whole of our rail system back into public ownership. This was actually supported in a motion passed by Labour Party members at their Conference in 2004, only to be told bluntly by then Transport Secretary Alastair Darling that such a policy had been ruled out.It's time to get back to the basics of customer service and value for money. Government cash put into the railways should be providing a better and cheaper service for everyone, not massive profits for obscure "leasing" companies, many of them owned by banks.

Andy Chase
Green Parliamentary Candidate for York Central