Received from: ASLEF
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Congress welcomes the opportunity that has been presented for the future of public transport, specifically the rail network, following the Labour Party’s victory in the general election and their pledge to create Great British Railways (GBR).
Congress applauds this important first step but believes an extended review of the railways is needed, inclusive of rolling stock ownership/procurement and both open access and rail freight operations.
Congress notes that the privatised nature of the railfreight sector often leads to a ‘race to the bottom’ as companies bid against each other to win contracts. This along with the economic downturn and erosion of British industry, including the cancelation of infrastructure works, issues in the steel sector and the slowdown in construction has unfortunately seen redundancies in rail freight.
However, rail freight plays a vital role in decarbonisation and efforts to achieve net zero, whilst also currently contributing £2.45bn in economic benefits to the UK. There is an opportunity for railfreight to be central to Labour’s plans on construction, infrastructure, economic growth and decarbonisation. Labour intends to create a statutory duty on GBR to promote the use of rail freight, with an overall growth target set by the Secretary of State, this could inadvertently encourage poor employment practices with a greater race to the bottom and undercutting between rail freight bidders.
Therefore, Congress calls on the General Council to lobby the UK government for the expansion of publicly owned railfreight services eventually resulting in a fully renationalised railfreight sector.
ASLEF