Off the rails?

YES

Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the rail union the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, which represents the likes of engineers, managers, booking office and call centre workers.

"SO that’s £40m of taxpayers’ money down the drain and we still don’t know who will be running the West Coast line in the new year. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin splutters that there will be ‘a pause’, while he ponders on when to run the discredited bidding process all over again. In the meantime, three other franchise bids will be kept in the sidings.

“Is there a better way? We think there is. It is called a publicly-owned and publicly-accountable railway. Something that Tony Blair promised voters in 1997 but, like so much of the Blair Project, something he never delivered.

“In Germany, France, Spain and Italy, they have rail networks with cheaper fares and faster trains. And they are all publicly-owned.

They cost their taxpayers less as well. Despite a privately-run rail system in the UK, we are paying the industry nearly £5bn in public subsidy, easily the highest in Europe.

“For that, we have the most expensive fares in Europe and we are 40 per cent less efficient – largely because of the vast bureaucracy in managing a system with 24 competing private companies.

“We as taxpayers are supporting a broken system that can only be made to work through huge public subsidy.

“So while our European partners have just one publicly-owned rail company, we have the ridiculous system of 24 companies bidding against each other for the right to charge passengers up to three times more than they would pay for a similar journey in France.

“Not one of those companies own the tracks, stations or trains they use. Track and stations are owned by Network Rail – which rail firms pay access charges to – and then they lease the trains from the banks.

“Who could possibly have devised such a crazy system?

“We have a rail network no longer fit for purpose and should follow Europe and run a cheaper, more affordable network for the sole benefit of passengers.”

NO

Thirsk and Malton Conservative MP Anne McIntosh, a member of the all-party MPs group on the railways and a former member of the transport select committee.

"IT is generally accepted that rail privatisation has been a success, with record numbers of rail passengers travelling since privatisation was introduced in 1997.

"1.4 billion journeys are now made on our services every year – the highest figures since the 1920s.

"It is true that there have been issues with rail franchises, initially owing to the length of the franchises being awarded, which were deemed to be too short, and more recently with companies signing up to franchises which were commercially too challenging. The previous operators of East Coast – GNER and National Express come to mind.

“Now the highly regrettable and flawed competition which aimed to allocate the West Coast franchise has thrown a further spotlight onto the process.

“However, in the long term, it is not appropriate for the Government to effectively run a railway. The decisions taken have to be on a sound commercial basis with safety at the heart of any rail operation.

“What is now required is for the [West Coast] competition to be re-run and for the bidders to be compensated. Other franchises due to be settled in the next two years will be put on hold and an investigation will be conducted by the Department of Transport into the mistakes that were made.

“[Tranport Secretary] Patrick McLoughlin has requested two independent reviews to look urgently and thoroughly into the matter so that we know what exactly happened and how we can make sure our rail franchise programme is fit for purpose.

“I am firmly of the view that private companies are best placed to deliver the rail services for this country, but this is an opportunity to learn from these procedures and improve the franchise process.”