Train drivers’ union calls on government to commit to public ownership of all new trains
Private rolling stock companies currently lease trains to operators at a "vast expense"
The train drivers’ union ASLEF has called on Andy Burnham’s government to commit to public ownership of all new trains.
Under Keir Starmer, the government began bringing passenger rail services into public ownership with Great British Railways.
However, private rolling stock companies still own trains and lease them to rail operators.
In 2024/25, the cost of leasing trains from the three main rolling stock companies (ROSCOs), Eversholt Rail, Porterbook and Angel, was a staggering £4.1 billion.
The three ROSCOs are owned by asset management funds, with Porterbrook owned by investment funds including Allianz Capital and Allianz Group and Angel owned by AMP Capital, the investment arm of Australian financial services conglomerate AMP Group.
Cayman Islands-registered company CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd owns Eversholt.
ASLEF has today launched a campaign to get the government to take public ownership of all new rolling stock.
ASLEF’s general secretary, Dave Calfe, said: “Huge sums of money are being taken out of our railway in profits and dividends by private rolling stock companies. A lot of it ends up in offshore tax havens.
“We need to keep that money on the track, not send it offshore.”
Calfe said that ROSCOs took £2.9 billion out of Britain’s railway in the last five years alone.
He said “there is another way”, pointing to how, in Liverpool, Labour Mayor Steve Rotherham has bought new Merseyrail trains using public funds.
“This has allowed them to specify the design of the trains to best suit the region and the passengers,” Calfe said.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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