Letter to Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin - Secretary of State for Transport

Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin

Secretary of State for Transport

Department for Transport

76 Great Marsham Street

London

SW1P 4DR

Date:                           27.11.14

 

Dear Patrick,

Urgent: Rail Franchising – Intercity East Coast franchise

I am writing to call on you to halt the process of awarding the Intercity East Coast franchise to the private sector.

After private sector failure, the East Coast franchise was successfully taken in-house.  In the 5 years it has been run by the public sector, East Coast returned nearly £1bn to the taxpayer, as well as increasing passenger numbers, introducing a new timetable, improving punctuality, investing in ageing rolling stock and achieving an industry leading approach to recycling and reducing carbon emissions.[1]

There is no logic to putting the successful East Coast Mainline back into the hands of private operators again, when the public sector rescue has been such a success.  This is privatisation for privatisation’s sake and a terrible deal for passengers and for taxpayers who are forced to endure the consequences of a deeply complex and fragmented system while ticket prices keep rising.

I am aware that there is a standstill period of at least 10 days before the award is finailsed.  The purpose of this letter is to ask you to stop this process and to keep the East Coast Mainline in public hands. 

The fragmented franchise system is not fit for purpose.  I urge you to look at the evidence of what is best for passengers and taxpayers, which is to bring all private franchises back into public ownership as they either fail or expire. This could save over £1 billion a year of taxpayers’ money, some of which the Government could spend on reducing fares.

My Railways Bill, currently before Parliament is a way to do just that and keeping the successful Eastcoast Mainline public should be just the start of this process.

I should be grateful for your response to this letter.

Yours sincerely,

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