Privatisation's hit the buffers and we need a railway back on tracks – Brian Wilson

The fantasy of competitive train services has crumbled so, after Covid, it’s time for a state-owned railway, writes Brian Wilson

The UK needs a state-run railway to rival the kind of train services in Europe, says Brian Wilson (Picture: Michael Gillen)

A press clip reminded me that, 25 years ago this week, I was speaking along with Charles Kennedy at an anti-rail privatisation meeting in Kyle of Lochalsh.

At that time, as Labour’s spokesman, I was addressing huge meetings from Penzance to Wick, often in places which certainly did not vote Labour but did value their rail services. Happy days!

In the short-term, the campaign failed and the railways were flogged off to the likes of Souter and Branson.

I took solace from the reputational damage inflicted on John Major’s government which contributed significantly to the 1997 election result.

My abiding lesson from these days on the tracks was that while privatisation was ideological, rail fragmentation was much worse – dangerous and extraordinarily expensive as lawyers and accountants gorged themselves on contracts and disputes.

The point about danger quickly led to privatised Railtrack returning to public ownership as Network Rail. The fantasy of a competitive railway crumbled as one franchisee after another went bust, after pocketing the swag. Most franchises are now held in whole or part by state railways – of other European countries!

It has been a long journey but the last stop is approaching. Since Covid-19, all revenue and cost risk has been transferred to government.

Even before then, a model was being designed in which operators will become concessionaires – ie running trains for a fee on the public sector’s behalf – rather than the swashbuckling entrepreneurs of privatisation mythology.

So maybe we can start again on with the destination of a state-owned railway on a par with its continental counterparts; an objective with which even that defrocked high priest of privatisation, Michael Portillo, might now concur.

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