Rail privatisation isn’t working
PRIVATE companies now run less of our rail network than at any time since Tory rail privatisation began in 1993.
Of 17 passenger train operators across Britain, seven are run by the Department for Transport’s Operator of Last Resort or its equivalent in Wales and Scotland, three by foreign state-owned companies, and three by joint ventures that include foreign state-owned companies. Only four train operators are now run by private companies.
Rail privatisation was sold to the public as a way to bring competition, innovation and investment from the private sector. A total illusion, of course.
Competition among train operators was always limited with a few bidders carving up franchises between them. Real innovation requires long-term investment in research and development and private-sector investment was always minuscule.
The illusion relied on the growth of passenger numbers and profits, which had to be guaranteed by periodic franchising reviews. Privatised passenger train operators are a net drain on the taxpayer.
It is easy to forget now that British Rail’s privatisation was intended to be a model for the rest of Europe and the world to follow.
Instead, the shutdown in world trade in 2020 during the Covid pandemic has exposed the inadequacies of privatised rail systems worldwide.
While China constructs the largest high-speed rail network in human history entirely in state ownership and reshapes the global economy through the Belt and Road Initiative — a logistics network of rail, road and docks linking Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe — rail privatisation is incapable of delivering sustained investment at scale.
Earlier this month, RMT extended our union’s solidarity and condolences to survivors and families of rail workers and passengers killed in the Balasore train crash in Odisha, eastern India on June 2.
Pictures of the horrific crash shocked the world. Some 288 were killed and over 1,100 injured when a passenger train was diverted into a loop line occupied by an iron ore train.
A second passenger train collided with derailed coaches. The trains were packed with migrant workers and families travelling between Kolkata and Chennai on India’s main east coast rail line.
India’s Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw speculated in the media about potential sabotage, while opposition parties denounced this attempt to shift blame from politicians responsible for cuts to railway funding and preparing Indian Railways for privatisation.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions warned that India’s BJP government has diluted parliamentary scrutiny of rail and reduced financial support, with 320,000 vacancies left unfilled, while promoting luxury intercity train Vande Bharat as a fig leaf for modernisation instead of long-term investment.
Such comments evoke the crashes in Britain that followed rail privatisation in 1993. In five years, Britain suffered crashes at Southall in September 1997 (seven killed, 139 injured), Ladbroke Grove in October 1999 (31 killed, over 520 injured), Hatfield in 2000 (four killed, over 70 injured) and Potters Bar in 2002 (seven killed, 76 injured).
Jarvis, the private rail maintenance firm at Potters Bar, initially speculated the crash was caused by a sophisticated saboteur with “informed” engineering knowledge, before finally admitting liability.
These crashes had multiple, complex causes, but shared a common characteristic: a rail system where profit-making and financial priorities led to shortcuts with public and worker safety.
India today is suffering a similar epidemic, with over 2,000 train crashes between 2017-21.
The tragedy at Balasore has destroyed the government’s narrative that Indian Railways is being transformed into a “smart,” speedy transport system with the latest technology.
The Indian Railways board says the Balasore crash was probably caused by electronic interlocking failure, but a recent report on derailments in India highlighted a shortfall in track inspections.
Of 1,129 derailments, 422 were attributed to engineering issues including track maintenance (171), gauge spreading (156), and wheel defects (182), with 275 due to human error.
The All-India Loco Running Staff Association warns staff shortages mean train drivers often work shifts of over 12 hours and it is demanding that 471 vacancies in the southern district are filled.
Those who recall Tory underfunding of British Rail in the 1980s will recognise the preparations for privatisation.
To break up and sell off a national institution it is necessary to destroy public confidence in it, so private investors can pose as white knights coming to the rescue.
In the latest environmental disaster for the North America’s privately run rail network, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3 2023.
Railcars burned for over two days, releasing hydrogen chloride and phosgene and contaminating a local river. Residents were evacuated, with emergency response teams activated from Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
US National Transportation Safety Board findings indicate the derailment was caused by a mechanical problem on a railcar axle, which was observed throwing sparks an hour before the derailment.
Private US rail companies operate a “precision-scheduled railroading” system that maximises freight miles with as few workers and safety checks as possible.
In 2022, US President Joe Biden banned strike action by two rail unions fighting to win better staffing levels and sick leave.
On February 28 2023 a head-on collision in Greece between two trains on the line from Athens to Thessaloniki killed 57 passengers.
Greek rail union leader Kostas Genidounias said: “Signalling and automatic control systems have not worked for years. Nothing works. Everything is done manually.”
In 2019 the European Commission ordered Hellenic Railways to repay £2.1 million for failing to deliver the signalling and telecoms project on the Athens-Thessaloniki line.
Greek railways were privatised as a condition of the EU’s austerity bailouts in 2013.
Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane (FSI) bought the train operations in 2017 for £40m, but underinvestment in rolling stock and infrastructure continues. The Greek state subsidises FSI by around £44m a year.
On January 18 the European Commission announced a new investigation into illegal state aid payments to France’s publicly owned rail freight company, SNCF Fret.
Between 2007 and 2019 payments are estimated at €4.3 billion, cancellation of financial debt worth €5.3bn, and a capital injection of €170m in 2020 when SNCF Fret became a commercial company.
SNCF is preparing to wind up SNCF Fret with the loss of 500 jobs, abandoning a third of its rail freight market and being unable to bid for it for 10 years, transfer of its locomotives to private operators and the breakup of SNCF Fret into two subsidiaries, which will be opened to private investors.
Private ownership of passenger and freight rail is a drag on the technical and social development needed to achieve a modal shift from road to rail. Rail privatisation isn’t working. We need to move on.