BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS

That this House expresses its serious concern about the chaos on Britain's railways over the New Year period and its impact on many thousands of passengers; considers that these problems derive essentially from the privatisation and consequent fragmentation of the railway industry and the jungle of associated contracting and sub-contracting; notes that the costs of trackwork have multiplied since privatisation with these extra costs amounting to billions of pounds paid for by passengers through high fares and by massively increased taxpayer subsidies; recalls the comments of the former railway regulator that British Rail (BR) `worked miracles on a pittance' and had handed over the railways to the privateers `in good order'; further recalls the Catalyst report which found that despite decades of under-funding BR had the highest level of productivity in Europe; and concludes therefore that Britain's railways should now be returned to public ownership and reintegrated into a single industry with direct in-house employment at every level.