Stop the Great Rail Rip-Off. Return the Rail Industry to Public Ownership

SERTUC joined the Action for Rail protest against rip-off train fares, 18 August 2015, outside Waterloo station. As hard-pressed commuters streamed by demonstrators from ASLEF, RMT, TSSA and UNITE protested against the prospect of yet another increase on top of what are already the most expensive rail fares in Europe. A fare increase that will further fund the profits of the privatised train companies and the dividends paid to their share owners, but punish commuters and other rail users again. Between 2010 and 2015 season tickets and other regulated tickets on the trains increased by 25 per cent, whilst average pay increased by less than 10 per cent.

SERTUC believes that the rail industry should be publicly owned, publicly controlled, publicly accountable and publicly delivered. Research by Action for Rail calculates that returning rail to public ownership would lead to a 10 per cent cut in ticket prices by 2017. Demonstrators handed out campaign post cards to commuters. Opinion polls confirm that taking the rail industry back into public ownership is supported by a substantial majority of the general public.

In addition to the protest at Waterloo there were protests at many other stations in the SERTUC region including Ascot, Brighton, Brighton Preston Park, Hove, King’s Lynn, Norwich, Slough and Windsor.

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TUC press release

#railripoff

Laurie Heselden                

@TUCLaurieHeseld

Megan Dobney                  

@mdobney