43 East coast mainline

Submitted by Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen

Congress welcomes the Government’s decision to take the east coast mainline franchise back into public hands for the second time in three years following National Express’s failed stewardship of the economically and strategically vital route and believes that the operator should be stripped of its remaining East Anglia and C2C franchises and banned from ever again running rail services in the UK.

Congress asserts that the ease with which National Express was able to renege on its contractual obligation to pay the Government £1.4bn by 2014 demonstrates that the rail franchising system cannot deliver the investment or certainty that passengers or taxpayers deserve and notes with regret that the Department for Transport intends to re-let the franchise in 2010.

Congress notes that the one constant among the many variables of the franchising process are the workers. It applauds the efforts of all staff on the east coast mainline amid the uncertainties of recent months and once again reiterates its belief that the optimum model for running a rail network is on a centrally run, publicly owned and vertically integrated basis.

Congress instructs the General Council to:

i) lobby and campaign for the east coast franchise to be retained as a public company administered by the Government and run on a not-for-profit basis, rather than re-let to the private sector

ii) pressurise the Treasury and Department for Transport into ensuring that the financial shortfall does not affect important infrastructure projects, such as electrification and the development of high speed rail.

Amendment (Not Accepted)

From: National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Add new final paragraph:

‘The collapse of the franchise again demonstrates the failure of privatisation and Congress continues to support full renationalisation of the railways and London Underground and oppose the privatisation of Tyne & Wear Metro and Eurostar and also the latest threat to fragment and privatise Cal Mac Ferries.’