25-05-2025
Transport Secretary: Public doesn't care who runs railways
Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures show that there were 43.2 million passenger journeys in the last three months of 2024, compared to 54.2 million at the same point in 2017 when SWR's final private operators took on the franchise.
This is a 20 per cent drop, although the Covid-19 pandemic caused a slump in passenger numbers that has taken the whole industry years to recover from.
At present, private train companies are paid a flat management fee of about 2 per cent of the ticket sales revenue that they earn by the DfT, with the taxpayer subsidising any financial losses.
Ms Alexander acknowledged the cost to the taxpayer of running Britain's trains and suggested she wants to reduce it.
'The real issue that I've got is that, at the moment, the operational running of the railways costs the taxpayer about £2 billion a year, and that's before you get to the billions that we invest every year in Network Rail, in the infrastructure, the track, the signalling,' she told reporters in Bournemouth on Thursday.
'And so I would love to be able to tell your readers that I'm going to be able to bring ticket prices down, but I can't do that at the moment,' she continued.
'What I can promise your readers, though, is that I will strain every sinew to make sure that they get decent value for money, because people are having to pay a fair whack for train travel.'
Gareth Bacon MP, the Conservative shadow transport secretary, said bringing SWR into state ownership was motivated more by politics than providing better services.
'Satisfy their union paymasters'
'Labour promised their rail renationalisation plans will bear down on ticket prices, end disruption and strikes, and lead to better onboard services,' he said.
'We are concerned that since the Labour came to power their need to satisfy their union paymasters led to a 15 per cent pay rise with – incredibly – no strings attached, which was paid for by already hard-pressed commuters who have been faced with a 4.5 per cent increase in rail fares.
'Labour have talked up the benefits of renationalisation for years and they will now have to deliver on their promises of lower ticket prices, an end to all disruption and strikes and better onboard services. The alternative is that, as usual, British taxpayers have to foot the bill for Labour.'
After SWR falls into Government hands on Sunday, the remaining nine privately operated train companies will have their contracts terminated at roughly three-month intervals.
By 2027 a new body, Great British Railways (GBR), will be set up to run the trains. Ms Alexander said earlier this week that nationalised operators will have to 'earn the right' to become part of GBR by improving their punctuality, reliability and 'passenger experience' before they will be allowed to rebrand.
'This is not British Rail Mark Two,' she vowed to The Telegraph. 'This is going to be a 21st-century organisation that is commercial, that is lean, that is agile.'
The next train company to be nationalised is c2c, which takes place on July 25, followed by Greater Anglia in October.
