THE ROLLING-stock market is beyond reform, and the only way to solve its inherent problems is to abolish it, Britain’s biggest rail union said today

As the Competition Commission published for consultation its preliminary findings on rolling-stock leasing, RMT called for direct public control of rolling-stock and for new trains to be built in Britain – steps that would help save public money and boost the train-making industry.

“It is clear to everyone that there is something wrong, but going further down the same blind alley is not the answer,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today

“The Commission was handed an impossible remit, because the market itself is an absurdity whose prime function is to take public money out of the railway industry and convert it into private profit.

“This is a market that is more about leeching than leasing, and its very existence has robbed the railway industry of hundreds of millions of pounds that could and should have been invested in new trains to help beat overcrowding, boost capacity and help the environment.

“And it is another reason why passengers are facing inflation-busting fares increases year after year.

“What we need is direct public procurement, led by the Department for Transport, which can ensure that trains are built in Britain and supplied directly to the industry, without vast sums being siphoned unnecessarily out of the industry in the process.

“We certainly don’t need longer franchises, because the franchise system has also demonstrably failed and it too is part of the problem.

“The train leasing companies are all still owned by banks and other financial institutions – the very sector whose unbridled greed has helped to drag the world into recession, and it needs to be taken out of their hands and returned to the public sector,” Bob Crow said.

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For further information contact Derek Kotz on 020 7529 8803 or 07939 595 092