The government has announced a major shake-up of the UK’s rail network, bringing vast swathes of the country’s railways into state control.
A new state-owned body, Great British Railways (GBR), will set timetables and prices, sell tickets in England and manage infrastructure – with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, vowing that it will offer more punctual services and cheaper tickets.
However the industry will remain substantially privatised, with franchises replaced by contracts to incentivise private firms on punctuality and efficiency as opposed to raising revenue.
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said passengers had been failed by “years of fragmentation, confusion and overcomplicating” – and that GBR would “become a single familiar brand with a bold new vision for passengers – of punctual services, simpler tickets and a modern and green railway that meets the needs of the nation”.
Despite a few caveats, the policy is not radically different in substance to one first proposed by Jeremy Corbyn who, in one of his first acts as leader in 2015, outlined plans to bring rail franchises back into public hands.
A programme of nationalisation was at the heart of Labour’s manifesto in 2019, with the party proposing to bring the Royal Mail, energy supply networks, water and sewerage companies as well as the rail network into public ownership.
Unsurprisingly, Corbyn’s supporters were out in force this morning on social media – with #CorbynWasRight trending on Twitter.
But others were quick to point out that the government’s policy and Corbyn’s are very different, arguing that #CorbynWasRight misses the point.
While Corbyn had called for a “fully publicly owned railway system”, the Tory alternative will remain heavily privatised – albeit with different contractual incentives aimed to encourage efficiency over profit.
Andrew Fisher, a former Corbyn aide, suggested that Great British Railways “remain privatised”, and called it “a pale imitation” of the Labour plan put forward in 2019.
Related: The Tories are renationalising chunks of the railways. Sound familiar?
