Another Great Train Robbery

The selling of the East Coast Mainline franchise has caused a moderate stir online and in certain publications, and rightly so. It's difficult to frame it as anything other than a robbery, plain and simple. Look at it this way; as tax payers we own public infrastructure, it belongs to us as the people who foot the bill and who rely on the services we have invested in; similarly the government is democratically elected to represent us and manage the country as we, the electorate, see fit - simple, indisputable truths. Now consider that 68% of the public wish for the whole of the national rail system to be nationalised; with this in mind we can assume it's safe to say that a minimum of 68% of folk would prefer the East Coast Line to remain in public ownership. But just last week, in the face of this, the government rushed through privatisation.

These are not secret figures, plucked from the ether; they are based on credible national polls and the government are well aware of them. Of course they know that 68% of people would prefer a nationalised railway system; they just don't care. The East Coast Line is a shining example of the public sector at work, it puts the privately run franchises to shame on every level and it cannot be allowed to continue doing so. The figures are striking, this infographic from Unions Together says it all:

Click here for the original version on the Unions Together website

Some of these numbers are absolutely incredible, I'm drawn to the tax payer spend per passenger mile to begin with: 50p in the public sector against £5.70 on the privately run West Coast, record levels of both customer & staff satisfaction show what a difference it makes when profit isn't put before all else - it's no wonder public support for public ownership is so high.

The con that is this sell off really is as remarkable as it is infuriating. We, the tax payers, are hit three fold by Cameron's great train robbery: firstly, and most directly, in the pocket when we buy our ticket; the £500m in shareholder dividends has to come from somewhere and it comes out of our wallets with walk on fares hiked an eye watering 245% .

Secondly we subsidies the private franchises. This is just one of the many, many examples of neoliberal nonsense; so called free market capitalism is, in many cases, a total fraud - the franchises are propped up by tax payer subsidies; in the case of the West Coast line to the tune of £2.5bn.

Finally, and perhaps most sickening of all, is the lost revenue. The East Coast Line was such a success in public hands that it returned £1bn to the tax payer. That's £1bn which goes back into our economy and can be spent on society as a whole; Cameron and Osborne would sell it off for a fast buck - it's a grotesque abuse of power.

If you would like to exercise your democratic right against this sham of a gvernment you can do so in numbers of ways. Firstly sign this petition against the privatisation of the line and, come May, lets turn up at the ballot box and turf this caustic lot out of our Westminster