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Labour is stepping up plans to prove its socialist roots by passing laws that will see Britain’s railways renationalised before the next general election.
Plans to bring “broken” private ownership of the railways back into the public sector would mean a nationalisation programme on a scale not seen since Margaret Thatcher’s aggressive privatisation of the railways in the 1980s.
A bill presented to MPs on Monday will bring rail lines back under public control when contracts with operators expire.
New transport secretary Louise Haigh has styled herself “passenger in chief” as she leads the overhaul, but rail companies have said the plan is more political than practical and will increase costs over time. Shadow transport secretary Helen Whately added that “passengers will pay the price”.
Ms Haigh’s allies said the bill was part of a “radical agenda that has not been picked up in the media” and proved sceptics about Labour’s socialist orientation wrong. A law allowing communities to take control of local buses will be introduced in parliament later.
The Passenger Rail Services (Public Ownership) Bill – the government’s first major piece of legislation – will be the biggest nationalisation programme since the 1970s, before Mrs Thatcher launched a massive privatisation of public services.
Ms Haigh, who will lead the bill through Parliament, has made clear her intention to improve the experience and quality of service for passengers on the rail network.
She said The Independent“This Bill demonstrates the scale of our ambition to rebuild Britain, by putting transport at the heart of our plans for change.
“As ‘chief passenger,’ I said we would move quickly and fix the problems, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with this radical legislative agenda.”
Attacking the private sector companies that currently run many services, she added: “Our transport system is broken, but this bill lays the foundations for a public railway that works for everyone and puts passengers first.”
The Transport Secretary recently said: “We hope that [the Rail (Public Ownership) Bill] “It will all be finished by the end of the year and we can start at the beginning of the new year and then we will deliver at a steady pace.”
The bill will be the first step in bringing rail back into public ownership, laying the legal foundations for this to happen.
Labour’s push for state ownership of the railways follows repeated failures by private operators. The policy is supported by a majority of the public: a recent Ipsos poll showed that 54% of respondents supported public ownership of the railways. A YouGov poll also showed that three-quarters of respondents believed that the railways should be publicly run, with just 13% believing they should remain private.
The poll also found that six in ten Conservative voters support nationalisation of the railways, compared with just over a quarter who believe the railways should be privately run.
One area of savings identified by Labour is management fees and dividends, where it estimates it could avoid paying out £130m each year to shareholders.
The bill will be followed by the launch of the government’s Great British Railways, which will bring together existing bodies such as Network Rail and train companies to run the network.
The new public sector company will be based in Derby and a transition team will already be in place.
A process for the takeover of lines by the public sector will also be put in place when the contracts expire.
The Department for Transport already owns LNER, which operates the East Coast Main Line, after the company was taken over by taxpayers by the Conservative government following financial difficulties.
It is hoped that the renationalisation of the railway network will be completed before the next elections.
Ms Whately said: “The Transport Secretary herself has admitted that renationalising our railways will not deliver cheaper rail fares. Labour’s plan is driven by ideology rather than what works and passengers will pay the price.”
“There is widespread agreement that rail needs reform and that is happening as Labour pushes ahead with plans to merge rail and rail into Great British Railways. Labour must urgently confirm whether it supports our investment in infrastructure like Network North.”
Andy Bagnall, chief executive of Rail Partners, an industry group of rail operators and freight groups, said previously that “rail companies agree that change is necessary for the railways, but nationalisation is a political rather than a practical solution that will increase costs over time.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the British Reform Party and MP for Clacton, said: “They’re going to ruin it. It’s the 1970s all over again.”
Tom Clougherty, chief executive of the right-wing think tank Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) – which inspired Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget – said nationalising the railways “carries risks of wasting taxpayers’ money, union domination and cronyism”.
Ms Haigh must also find a way to end the wave of strikes that have hit the rail network and cost the country billions. She is due to hold talks with train drivers’ union Aslef in the coming weeks over a pay deal.
