Cat Smith MP is backing Labours new commitment to get local train services back on track by supporting plans to overhaul Britain’s broken railways.

This comes after Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh MP, announced Labour’s detailed plans to reform Britain’s railways.

Cat Smith MP adds: “With massive delays and cancellations, ever rising rip-off prices, threats to ticket offices, broken air conditioning and water systems, mouldy food and poor service, Avanti have reached the end of the line. I’m excited to see Labour’s plans to get Britain moving and bring train operating companies back under public control, and hope Avanti are one of the first.”

In recent years rail cancellations have soared to record high levels, fares have risen almost twice as fast as wages since 2010, and strikes are costing taxpayers £25m for every day they go ahead, whilst taxpayers fork out huge subsidies to pay for trains that are overcrowded, delayed, or cancelled.

Labour have pledged to fold existing private passenger rail contracts into Great British Railways as they expire, without the taxpayer paying a penny in compensation costs, as part of a publicly owned and passenger focused railway.

Since 2016 Avanti passengers have faced a huge 506% increase in cancelled services since 2016, and only 37.2% of Avanti’s trains were on time in October-December last year.

This compares to a shocking 61% increase in cancellations across Britain since 2016, with only 62% of services on time in October-December last year.
During its first term, a Labour Government would:

• Put the passenger first, by delivering a best-price ticket guarantee for passengers, and rolling out automatic delay repay and digital season tickets across the network
• Establish a powerful new passenger watchdog, the Passenger Standards Authority, to hold Great British Railways to account for passengers
• Deliver significant savings to the taxpayer by eliminating fragmentation, waste, bureaucracy and by stopping profits leaking out to private operators
• Create a unified, publicly owned, accountable and arm’s length Great British Railways, which will be led by rail experts, not Whitehall
• Expect to complete the transition to public ownership within the first term of a Labour Government, by folding existing private passenger rail contracts into the new body as they expire, without the taxpayer paying a penny in compensation costs
• Give devolved leaders, including Mayoral Combined Authorities, a statutory role in the rail network, allowing decisions about the railways to be taken closer to the communities they serve
• Support successful open access and freight operators to continue to deliver, and set clear objectives and targets for passenger services and freight growth

Cat Smith MP comments: “For too long my constituents have been let down by unreliable and inefficient train services, holding back our local economy, limiting work opportunities, and causing absolute havoc in people’s daily lives. That’s I am supporting Labour’s fantastic new plans to create Great British Railways – a new, publicly owned and expert-led body to run our railways and put the passenger first. Labour’s plans will mean reliable, safe, efficient, accessible, affordable and quality train services, no matter where you live.”

Louise Haigh, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Transport said: “Labour will deliver the biggest overhaul in our railways for a generation, ending the deepening crisis and chaos that passengers have been forced to endure in recent years. Underinvestment, fragmentation, inefficiency, waste and 14 years of tinkering by Conservative Ministers have left our railways unfit to meet the demands of modern Britain. Under Labour, a publicly owned and controlled railway will focus on what matters to passengers.”