Day of rail action across the North on Tuesday as RMT ramps up political pressure

In a letter to MPs and Councillors in the North the RMT union will warn that the three shortlisted bidders for the Northern Rail franchise are owned by Dutch, French and German state railways which means rail passengers in the North will be used as used a cash-cow to hold down fares and improve services for state run railways in France, Holland and Germany.

The letter has also revealed new RMT research showing that since 2007 Northern Rail has sucked passengers dry to pay £179 million dividends to shareholders while Transpennine Express (TPE) has paid £213 million to shareholders. That’s just shy of £400million which has been taken from railways in the North which could have been used to pay for fairer fares, new trains and more staff.

The letter warns that government plans for a new ten year franchise for Northern Rail and nine years for TPE will continue the northern and TPE rail rip off for another decade.

The warning for politicians came as RMT, as part of its call for a national integrated railway under public ownership, launched a new campaign for a publicly owned People’s Railway in the North, which would mean:  

• Every penny that is put into the railway will be invested in the railway
• Funding fair fares, new trains and more services
• And more help for passengers: trains will keep their guard with proper staffing for stations and ticket offices 
• Proper democratic oversight by communities and councils, instead of rail policy in the North being dictated by private and foreign companies.

The campaign will be launched at stations across the North on 31 March RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: "Tuesday is an important day in the union fight for a publicly owned railway and we will be out in force at locations across the North as we send out the clearest possible warning to MPs and Councillors that the new TPE and Northern franchises would ratchet up the scale of the great rail rip off if they are not halted in their tracks.

"Jobs, services and safety across the North are threatened with the cash saved used to hold down fares and expand services in other parts of Europe. That is the insanity of this Governments rail privatisation obsession laid bare and no politician of any party will be allowed by RMT to dodge the issue of public ownership as ‎the election approaches."