East Coast rail sale gets under way
Returning the East Coast Main line to the private sector will "revitalise" it, ministers have said as they kick-started the franchising process.
The line has been publicly run since 2009 when National Express handed back the franchise amid financial problems.
Ministers say the line has since been "stabilised" but they now want to "rekindle the spirit of competition".
Labour and the unions say the move is "ideological" and the line should remain in public ownership.
They say the failure of two successive operators to make the line - which runs from London to Edinburgh, with connected services to Inverness and Aberdeen - commercially viable and its improved performance in recent years show it can succeed under public ownership.
The government began the franchising process on Friday by releasing information about the line's financial position as well as the basic criteria for interested parties and details of the commercial risks involved.
'Lagging behind'
The successful bidder is due to be announced in a year's time with its franchise starting in February 2015.
Among those reported to be interested in bidding is Eurostar, which runs services from London to the Continent.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said public ownership was never meant to be a permanent arrangement and returning the operation of the line to the private sector would bring more investment and innovation.
"We want to see a revitalised East Coast railway, one that both rekindles the spirit of competition for customers on this great route and competes with the West Coast on speed, quality and customer service," he said.
Rail minister Stephen Hammond told the BBC that the East Coast "lagged behind" other long-distance operators in terms of punctuality while customer satisfaction was only "in line" with other routes.
"While they have done a good job, there is a lot more that can be done," he said, adding that the doubling of rail passengers since privatisation in the 1990s showed the benefits of the franchise process.
Critics of privatisation say the East Coast line has returned £800m to the taxpayer under public ownership.
But Mr Hammond said this was not a fair comparison as Network Rail had reduced charges for using the track substantially since National Express relinquished the franchise.
'Ideological'
The government says it is already planning "significant" investment in the line over the next six years, including new rolling stock, upgrades to the track around Peterborough and the rebuilding of Doncaster station.
But it wants a private sector operator to "transform the customer experience", develop "innovative timetables" and identify further opportunities for improving stations along the 353-mile route.
But Labour said the privatisation process - which was expected to be delayed until after the next election - was being driven by ideological reasons rather than the interests of passengers.
The opposition say the government has "learnt nothing" from the debacle over the West Coast Main Line franchising process last year, which had to be abandoned after mistakes by civil servants led to flawed calculations.
Speaking to the Financial Times, shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh said Labour's review of rail policy next year would consider the case for re-nationalisation among other options.
"We want a model that is going to work. What is interesting is that we have foreign state-owned railways running our services and investing money back into their own networks.
"If it works as a model for them, why can't it work as a model for the UK?"
'Successful and reliable'
The RMT union has pledged to fight the re-privatisation, saying the government is playing down the success of the line under public ownership in order to "bulldoze" the sale through.
Earlier this month it claimed a leaked version of the draft sale brochure redacted sections highlighting the good punctuality and performance of the service under public ownership.
"It is simply outrageous that the government are firing the starting gun on the re-privatisation of the East Coast when every objective analysis shows that this is a successful and reliable service," RMT boss Bob Crow said.
And the TUC said the line needed an operator which would put passengers not shareholders first.
"The government doesn't have one good argument for re-privatising the line and is yet again being blinded by outdated market dogma," said general secretary Frances O'Grady.
"As with the Royal Mail, they are putting ideology before evidence in the desire to sell off yet another important state asset."
Đăng ký: Tieng Anh Vui
Posts
No comments: