“At last rail passengers can breathe a sigh of relief."
Today will see the first King’s Speech delivered under a Labour government in 15 years. The King’s Speech sets out the legislation the government intends to bring forward in the current sitting of parliament.
Among the Bills expected to be announced in the speech are proposals to renationalise railways in the UK and to allow local authorities to regulate their buses.
Currently, only combined authorities with a metro-mayor have the powers required to bring buses under public control. This is what enabled Andy Burnham to regulate Greater Manchester’s buses in 2022, giving greater control over routes and fares.
In addition to giving more local authorities these powers, the King’s Speech is expected to announce that Labour will lift the ban on councils setting up their own publicly owned bus companies.
These two moves have been welcomed by public transport campaigners. Campaign group We Own It – which pushes for public services, including public transport, to be publicly owned has said that passengers can ‘breathe a sigh of relief’ as a result of the expected legislation.
Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at We Own It said of the planned renationalisation of the railways: “At last rail passengers can breathe a sigh of relief. This move by the new Labour government begins the wholesale renationalisation of our railway and it is long overdue. We Own It and other passenger groups have campaigned for a decade for a railway that works for people, not profit, and we’ve had success in bringing East Coast Rail, Northern Rail and TransPennine Express back into public hands.”
However, he also called on the government to go further, adding: “The government can go further and extend the principle to the ownership of our rolling stock, that is, the trains themselves, and put passengers on the decision-making boards that will run our railway system under public ownership. But this is without a doubt a brilliant start.”
With regards to the proposed new bus legislation, Nwogbo said: “On buses, mayors in Manchester, Liverpool and Yorkshire have become incredibly popular by taking public control of their local buses. Today’s announcement will make this government very popular with local bus users. We set up the Better Buses for Greater Manchester campaign and won public control of buses in Manchester in 2022. The model is spreading to Liverpool and West Yorkshire. The new powers announced today will mean more communities have a chance to benefit from buses run for them, not private profits”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Paul Smith – Creative Commons
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