Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh has announced the ‘biggest overhaul in a generation’ to train travel if elected. The Mirror’s Saffron Otter, who has taken many journeys on board Avanti West Coast, says it’s about time
Strikes, delays and overcrowding – these are common occurrences disrupting Britain’s trains.
Today, Labour unveiled its proposal to nationalise the railways once more – just as my train into London Euston arrived 25 minutes behind schedule. Some mornings, I fear it won’t even arrive at all. As a semi-regular commuter between Manchester and London, I’ve spent many a dreary morning stood on a freezing platform waiting for the train to turn up. More often than not it’s standing room only, rendering my prized seat reservation utterly pointless.
Then when it comes to where to stand, will I be lucky and get a corridor space or will I be forced next to the toilet? And the cost for two hours of torment? Sometimes more than £150 for advanced singles or £250 for a day return.
Amid lockdown, Manchester saw a boom in young professionals returning to their northern roots looking for a cheaper way of life. This was aided by the dawning of remote working, but many still need to check in with bosses in the capital several times a month, and as a result, more and more workers are relying on the network that continues to fail them.
Luckily for me, the often draining commute isn’t an everyday chore, but for those less fortunate, taking the train is their only option, in a daily journey that quite literally grinds them down. It’s cheaper for me to fly to Europe for a city break and there, I’d find comfort in an efficient service. Take Germany for example, whose trains are largely punctual, fast, and clean, and most importantly, publicly owned.
We have started to see the slow transformation in the UK with the Government taking over incompetent companies, including TransPennine Express, after customers continued to suffer disruptions and poor service. It was nationalised after around a quarter of services were cancelled in January and February 2023 alone.
The same calls have been made for Avanti West Coast. Their name alone – when brought up in discussion with fellow northerners – immediately sparks outrage. But despite their continuing high level of disruptions, the Tory Government rejected the call to take it over.
But there is hope with Labour, who has pledged to renationalise most passenger rail services within five years if elected in a much-needed major overhaul – a first in decades. However, true to their current wishy-washy opposition style, the actual term “nationalisation” doesn’t appear in their plan.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh agrees that the current system just “isn’t working” and has vowed a “modernisation” – “without the taxpayer paying a penny in compensation costs”. They have promised an improved experience, a simplified ticket purchasing system and better wifi signal on board.
I agree with Louise’s concern that at the expense of disgruntled passengers, the economy is taking a hit as a result, restricting the movement of people and opportunities. Within the plan, a best-price ticket guarantee means that people automatically pay the lowest possible fare when using contactless cards at train barriers nationwide, in the same way Transport for London already does for train and Tube journeys in the capital – in a welcomed move to ‘level up’.
Timetables and fares will be better integrated, with the party believing money will be saved by cutting out franchise bidding costs and removing the current duplication from having different train operators. Privatisation was supposedly meant to bring competitive pricing for customers and efficiency, yet figures show more than 1,000 trains were cancelled every single day in the past few months, and profits have gone straight into the pockets of the fat cats instead of being put back into the services to improve them. Now in 2024, millions of commuters are more than ready for the change, in a longed-for world where being on time for work is no longer a novelty.
