CONNEX AND RAIL PRIVATISATION

Motion Text

That this House welcomes the decision by the Strategic Rail Authority to refuse to renew the franchise of the train operating company, Connex; is aware too that many other TOCs are performing equally poorly and that a number have been saved only by substantial handouts from the tax payer; believes that the Connex franchise should now be returned to public ownership and provide a basis for all the TOC franchises to be renationalised as part of a new state-owned and nationally integrated railway industry operating in the public interest and accountable to Parliament; and considers the Connex failure to be yet more evidence of the disaster of railway privatisation.