Sadiq Khan has derailed Labour’s nationalisation plans
How is Keir Starmer’s plan to renationalise Britain’s railways going? Badly, if events in London are anything to go by.
Yesterday we learned that Transport for London has awarded a £3bn, 10-year contract to First Group to operate the London Overground when the current contract with Arriva expires next year. That’s in direct conflict with the Labour manifesto pledge of taking rail services into public ownership the moment private contracts expire.
It’s the second time in a year that a London rail service was handed to the private sector after TfL awarded the Elizabeth Line contract to GTS Rail in November last year.
It’s probably the right call. Both the Overground and the Lizzy line have proved a huge success since they were introduced, with passenger numbers outstripping early predictions. The services are regular and reliable, the trains pleasant and clean. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Compare this to some of the routes run by TfL, like the grotty, graffiti-addled Central line I have the misfortune of commuting in, conditions which few fair-minded souls would wish upon Overground users. Or look at the South Western Railway, popular with residents of the leafier corner of our city, which has seen its performance slide since nationalisation.
But these two contract decisions – which will have been signed off by Labour mayor Sadiq Khan – are a flagrant departure from Labour’s electoral pledges and should come as an embarrassment for Starmer.
There is nowhere better-placed in the country to bring privately-run rail services into public operation than London, the only city to have had a whole host of lines in continuous public ownership since the 1940s. If even Labour-run London doesn’t want to take on new lines, which other transport board would be foolish enough to?
It’s worth remembering that one section of the Overground, previously known as the East London line, even used to be operated by TfL before the Overground was launched in 2007. This means, in effect, that London had more nationalised railways under Thatcher than it will have done under Khan and Starmer. How’s that for a manifesto commitment?