New trains bought for the West Midlands could end up being moved to other parts of the country - Wolverhampton Tory
New trains bought to serve the West Midlands could end up being used in other parts of the country under nationalisation, a leading Conservative has claimed.
This week West Midlands Railway was taken into public ownership as part of a plan which will eventually see it become part of a larger national rail operator, Great British Railways.
The news was welcomed by Sureena Brackenridge, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East, who said it would end decades of 'railway rip off'
But Councillor Simon Bennet, leader of the opposition Conservative group on Wolverhampton Council, feared that recent investment made in the West Midlands' rolling stock could end up being taken to other parts of the country..
He said: “West Midlands Railway invested heavily in brand-new trains for our network.
"Under nationalisation, there is no guarantee those trains stay here.
"Assets paid for by and for the West Midlands could be reallocated elsewhere without consultation or consent.”
Councillor Bennett accused the Government of putting politics before passengers following the nationalisation of West Midlands Railways.
He said it was a politically driven decision that put ideology ahead of passengers, businesses and the regional economy.
Councillor Bennett warned the move represented a backward step, returning rail services to a failed model that did nothing to address today’s challenges and actively undermined the progress made in the West Midlands over recent years.
“There is absolutely no evidence that nationalisation will deliver better services, fewer cancellations or lower fares,” said Councillor Bennett.
“Passengers are being sold a promise that simply isn’t backed up by facts.”
He said the Government already controlled large parts of the fares system and had done for years, meaning nationalisation did not unlock new protections for passengers, but instead removed competition and incentives to improve performance.
“This is not reform, it’s reheated dogma," he said. "We know where this road leads, because we’ve been there before.”
Councillor Bennett warned that returning rail operations to a centrally run system risked repeating the failures that led to the break-up of British Rail.
He said: “British Rail was inefficient, unresponsive and poor value for money. That is why it was replaced.
Recreating that model, just with a modern logo, ignores history and insults passengers who remember the reality.”
Councillor Bennett said nationalisation did nothing to address the real issues facing rail users today.
“This does not fix staffing shortages, infrastructure bottlenecks, capacity constraints or reliability.
It is a policy that looks backwards, not forwards," he added.
“This is ideology over evidence, centralisation over accountability, and politics over passengers.
The West Midlands deserves a rail system focused on performance and the future. Not a return to the failures of the past.”
