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Tuesday 12 February 2013

Natalie Bennett calls for the "Renationalisation of rail"

The Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has called for the renationalisation of the nation’s railways, as the ‘only way’ to stop rocketing prices forcing people to stay at home – or into cars. Ms Bennett, who will be taking part in the national Love Trains – Hate High Fares demonstrations this Thursday (Feb 14) reminded the nation that the Green Party leads the political campaign to renationalise our railways, and has promised it will bring them back into public ownership when the party is elected.

She said: ‘Privatisation has been disastrous for the rail system. It has failed on every possible criterion. The event this week is a protest about fare increases and I’m delighted to be there in support, as the cost of tickets has increased shockingly. Prices have increased in many cases by more than three times the increase in the cost of living. It’s forcing people off the trains and it must stop, now.’

Since the rail service was privatised in 1993, some rail journeys, including London to Manchester, the cost of which has risen by 208 per cent, London to Exeter (205 per cent) and London to Cardiff (196 per cent) have increased in price by a rate which dwarfs the increase in the overall cost of living, the Retail Price Index, which has gone up just 66 per cent over the same period.

Rail fares in England were famously the most expensive in Europe – in many cases ten times those elsewhere in the EU for journeys of the same distance – even before the Coalition allowed a further increase in January this year, and Ms Bennett called for an end to the failed privatisation experiment.

She said: "Renationalisation is the only way we can bring prices back down and help people get back on the trains. Private companies have proved their priority is profit, not people, and are taking huge profits out of the rail system, at the expense of all of us who use them. Prices are making it impossible for people to use the trains, forcing many to remain at home instead. It stops grandparents from visiting grandchildren and even stops people taking jobs because the cost of travel is so high they can’t afford to work in certain places. Environmentally, it’s vital, too. Rail should always be cheaper than driving, which is terribly damaging to the environment, and under these private firms that’s not the case. Their policies are forcing people onto the roads and we must renationalise to reverse that."