"The government's stated aims are to increase rail use and protect the environment, but neither is served by making it easier to close rail lines and replace trains with buses," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"These draft guidelines will only fuel fears that rail policy is being determined by financial pressure from the Treasury rather than by strategic economic and environmental considerations.

"When the Railways Act was passed last year we warned that it would not solve the basic problems of rail privatisation and the fragmentation of our railways, and the joined-up thinking required is also missing from the draft closure guidelines.

"The government's own energy review warns that transport, not including air travel, is responsible for a quarter of all carbon emissions, yet the guidelines will allow decisions that will put even more traffic on already congested roads.

"The draft procedures will strip away even the flimsy safeguards that have been in place, such as the statutory responsibility of the Rail Passengers' Council to report on the hardship likely to be caused by closures, and there will also be no requirement to hold public hearings into proposed cuts.

"If the government wants to look at simple value for money, it would do well to look at the role of rolling-stock leasing companies making obscene profits out of renting out trains once publicly owned, and the £1 billion being drained out of the industry each year by the private sector.

"In the coming weeks we will be campaigning hard alongside our parliamentary colleagues to ensure that proper, joined-up safeguards are written into these guidelines when they return to parliament for endorsement," Bob Crow said.