MP calls for South Eastern Trains to remain in the public sector
Clive Efford, a member of the Commons Transport Select Committee, has tabled an early day motion calling for South Eastern Trains to be kept in the public sector.
A year after it was put under state control, Britain’s only publicly run train franchise is out performing its private competitors in both customer satisfaction and punctuality.
SET, which operates from across Kent into four London termini, has been nursed back to health by the Strategic Rail Authority
However, despite its high performance, the service is due to be put back out to private tender next year.
Mr Efford told BBC Radio Four’s PM that he will be putting pressure on the Government to keep it in the public sector.
“What I’m arguing is that this is an opportunity for us to have a good look at public against the private sector”, he said.
Mr Efford stressed that he was not calling for the renationalization of the whole rail system.
But added: “I’m saying that we’ve seen an improvement and at least let’s look at it.”
The previous operator, French company Connex, was disenfranchised last year for financial ineffectiveness.
In the last 12 months of Connex’s tenure, the company is said to have received 23,800 complaints, compared to SET, which has received only 16,700 in the same time period.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association – an independent UK-based trade union for the transport and travel trade industries – says SET provides a very clear lesson.
TSSA spokesman Mike Cats stated: “The public sector can run trains. This has been run in-house by the Strategic Rail Authority. There hasn’t been a penny paid into private shareholder pocket, it’s purely about providing a good service.”
He added: “It shows with the same stock and same network, and timetabling responsibilities, they can produce a better service.”
“So for us it says the public sector can work.”
But in statement the Department of Transport moved to put to rest such ideas, saying renationalization would cost billions of pounds of tax payer’s money.
This would at expense of “not one single new train being ordered or one meter of track being replaced”, the statement read,
It concluded: “South Eastern Trains are being run by the SRA on a temporary basis. It was always intended to seek a new operator. The competition for a new franchisee has already started, with four bidders short listed.”
