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Unions denounce Network Rail privatisation proposals
Rail unions have condemned proposals that could see Network Rail, the body that runs and maintains Britain’s railway network, fully or partially privatised.
The suggestion was made in the initial findings of the Shaw Report which was commissioned by the government to look at the long-term future shape and financing of the organisation.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of rail union ASLEF, said: “We are deeply disappointed that the privatisation of Network Rail is even under consideration.”
Whelan used the Hatfield rail crash as an example of the serious shortcomings of the privatised infrastructure company Railtrack, which was found to have failed in its duty of care to passengers and workers.
And he explained that having Network Rail as a national, publicly-owned, properly integrated infrastructure organisation would ensure a strategic, coherent and long-term approach to the railways.
He added that “publicly owned Network Rail can borrow more cheaply to invest — saving the Treasury and the taxpayer millions every year — and can also generate tremendous economies of scale through national level procurement”.
General secretary of the RMT rail union Mick Cash spoke strongly against privatisation.
“It is clear as day that the political drive behind this report into Network Rail is all about privatisation and cuts that will wreak chaos across our rail infrastructure when what we really need is an end to fragmentation and contracting out,” he said.
www.aslef.org.uk/information/143483/aslef_s_response_to_the_shaw_report/