Watch LIVE: Louise Haigh announces Labour’s plan to fix Britain’s railways and put passengers first

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] good morning everyone I’m Jody Ford CEO of train line as a homegrown UK Tech business that has scaled Beyond demestic borders into Europe our mission is to make train travel easier and more accessible encouraging people to choose environmentally sustainable rail we are proud to be recognized as an example of the Innovation and value that customers want the power and potential of rail to drive economic growth into all parts of our communities and meet environmental goals is significant I truly believe the best of rail is yet to come in this country which is why now is such an important time for the industry I am pleased to welcome Shadow St of State for transport Louise H who will set out Labor’s policy for ra [Applause] Louise thank you very much Jodie for your introduction and for hosting us today uh here at train line the last few years have certainly been interesting ones for transport in this country from hs2 chaos to our transport secretary in bizarre 15minute conspiracy theories at last year’s Tory Party Conference you could call the government’s transport agenda many things and I have called it many things but one thing it is not is boring and we are all here today because we are passionate about transport and the people it serves and all too often people are lost when we discuss transport policy but there is a reason that train line is the UK and Europe’s number one most downloaded rail travel app because you make it easier for millions of passengers to buy tickets to use the railway and to find the best value fairs train line success is driven by its Relentless focus on passengers it listens to the people who use the railways and it focuses on improving their experience it is these lessons and those from right across the best of the private and public sector that we draw on in setting out Labor’s plans today now Britain was of course the country that invented the railways and brought them to the world next year we will Mark 200 years since the world’s first passenger Railway ran from Stockton to Darlington The Innovation which followed transformed Britain supercharged our Industrial Revolution and made traveling the country a possibility for Millions we deserve to be proud of that Legacy but under the conservatives our Railways have become a symbol of national decline of a country that no longer works and a government with no plan to fix it cancellations are at record highs fars have risen almost twice as fast as wages since 2010 and Strikes are costing us 25 million pounds a day today’s broken model simply doesn’t work decisions which should be straightforward like timetable changes new ticket types or fairs can take years to happen and when things go wrong like delays armies of lawyers argue argue over whose fault it is and who pays for the mistake instead of how to fix it huge sums continue to be wasted on management fees and shareholder dividends and despite 30 years of privatization shockingly it is the taxpayer who still props up our failing Railways to the tune of billions of pounds every year that is why today I am setting out Labor’s plan to fix Britain’s Railways now you may not know this but my boss is Keen on something he likes to call Missi driven government the idea at the heart of this is that for government to succeed in making a difference and in making things better it has to be focused it has to set itself objectives and it has to be transparent and accountable the alternative as we have seen for much of the last 14 years is drift dither and dysfunction our Railways underpin all of the five missions that K starma has set for an incoming labor government they are vital to achieving the growth that we need and to unlocking opportunity for all they must drive forward our Ambitions on green energy and the Net Zero transition and we cannot keep people safe unless they feel safe to travel on public transport our Railways are critical to making our country a better wealthier and happier place and we can only achieve our five National missions if we unlock the trapped potential of our railways to boost growth and opportunity and to connect all of us with each other with work and with Leisure but I believe that mission-driven government also gives us a framework for understanding how to go about driving change within the railway itself under the Tories we’ve seen what consequences purposeless drift can have constant chaos and changes of Direction canceled upgrades and half-baked plans the conservative party has achieved the worst of all worlds for our Railways partially privatized overly centralized expensive but unreliable confusing in the extreme and shamefully unaccountable and it is passengers who always pay the price stranded at a station in the middle of the night when their train is cancelled crammed into overcrowded and unpleasant trains with broken toilets and dirty carriages unable to work as they travel because there’s no Wi-Fi connection and they pay through the nose to prop up this failing system with huge amounts wasted every year through inefficiencies and fragmentation unlike most privatizations that of the railways has never become publicly accepted because its failings have remained all too obvious the fragmentation of the network has made it more confusing for passengers and more difficult and expensive to perform the essentially collaborative task of running trains on time those aren’t my words they’re the words of Grant shaps remember him uh we’ve already had Keith Williams the government’s independent reviewer of rail endorsing our plans today so I wouldn’t rule out Grant shaps or perhaps one of his aliases endorsing Us by tea time now when Kier asked me to take on this role and to plan for how we will fix Britain’s Railways I set myself an exam question not how do I achieve an ideological outcome but how do I place passengers back at the heart of how our Railways are run that is my mission and it is the delivery of that mission a railway Network that is relentlessly focused on the passenger interest that underpins the policies I am launching today they amount to the biggest reform of our Railways for a generation labor will sweep away the broken model and bring private operators into public ownership as their contracts expire we would establish Great British Railways a single directing mind to control our Railways in the passenger interest yes we’re keeping the name I’m afraid I was overruled on calling it Rail britania and if I am Secretary of State I won’t be running the railways day today but I will act as the passenger in Chief setting the strategy and objectives for Great British Railways and holding it to account on behalf of passengers and everywhere but unlike current ministers I will trust the experts experts who don’t just come from the rail sector because we all know it can sometimes be a little inward looking but external experts in providing exceptional customer service we will deliver simplified fairs and ticketing a best Fair guarantee across the network has TR as train line has already managed to achieve and we will roll out the kinds of innovations that you have trial here digital season tickets and automatic delay repay so that they are available to all passengers and we will create a tough new passenger Watchdog that will hold Great British Railways to account on behalf of the passenger both on performance and on the quality of the service they provide because we believe that customer experience matters and it matters to Growing our Railways now I know what some are going to say same old labor always calling for public ownership but the truth of the matter is that neither the passenger nor the taxpayer can afford for things to continue like this throwing good money after bad at a system that simply isn’t delivering and as part of our new approach we will reset industrial relations on the railways which have hit a new low under this government who have continuously and deliberately provoked these disputes labor will take a consciously different approach we will see our work force as an asset rather than a liability we will work with them and where there are disagreements we will get around the table and we will work them out now there are two stages to the reforms I am setting out today Step One is urgent action we will take immediately if we enter office we will instruct the department for transport Network rail the rail delivery group and the operator of Last Resort to work together from day one to create a shadow Great British Railways this will fire the starting gun on reform and make sure we don’t lose valuable time or momentum step two will see us past the primary legislation needed to formly establish Great British wellways as an arms length body ensureing that is structured around the needs of passengers and Freight every 5 years the secretary of state will issue a long-term strategy which will set out how the railway must deliver against clear passenger objectives and Great British Railways will be incentivized to grow the number of people using Rail and the revenues from it and importantly it will provide the clarity and certainty of Outlook that the sector has been missing for so long that will help address the boom and bus cycle our rail manufacturers like olon and Hitachi in Darby and the Northeast have been left in by this government which has failed to set out a clear pipeline of rail Investments for years and to reassure both voters who worry that a railway run in their interests will cost to us cost too much and to reassure beloved colleagues in the shadow treasury team these fully costed proposals will save the taxpayer money through efficiencies delivered by eliminating duplicate costs across the network this is an entirely new approach to our Railways and consciously so there is no future in simply Reinventing the past and there is no hope if we remain wedded to the current mess this is our plan to put our Railways back on track to put passengers at the heart of our Railways and to hold the railway to account to make traveling by train accessible and reliable again and to cut the weight and the short-termism that has characterized the last 14 years of dysfunction it isn’t going to be easy and it will take hard graft but it will be my mission to get us to the right destination and to deliver for the Great British passenger thank you [Applause] thank you very much everyone I believe we’ve got some um questions from the Press I have got a hard uh deadline and my team are going to Signal when I need to go because I do need to catch a train um but we’ll start with Sam coats from Sky um how are you going to make sure that you don’t end up falling into the same old trap as British Railways where effectively to get train upgrades you are competing for cash with schools and hospitals and given money is going to be very tight aren’t the train is going to actually be a lower priority thanks well obviously uh we are in a very constrained public spending environment there is no doubt about that um but the reforms we’re setting out today will deliver significant efficiencies and cost savings for the taxpayer and as I’ve said earlier um the taxpayer simply can’t afford to continue with the current broken model that is throwing good money after bad and wasting very very stretched taxpayers money um now we’re not changing the way that trains are financed uh we’re not bringing uh the trains themselves into public ownership our model will continue to lease from the private sector and uh as I say it will deliver significant efficiencies we think we will save the taxpayer as much as 2.2 billion pounds every year hang on have you got an agreement from Rachel Reeves that your savings your efficiencies can all be channeled back into the railways so we we would hope that we would reinvest some of those savings we not agent that all of it would be but the taxpayer what we’ve got to remember already subsidizes the railways by over4 billion pound a year that level of subsidy has not changed since pre-co in the in the previous system the taxpayer is already footing the bill for the railways in a very broken and inefficient model passengers are paying the price and the taxpayers are getting very poor value for money these reforms will allow us to demonstrate that we can get better bank for our book and deliver a better service for passengers as well thanks Harry from ITV that not on holiday not on holiday not today um the uh latest stats I’ve been looking at suggest that around um 2% of all Journeys in the UK are made by rail why are you focusing so much attention on a service that not that many people seem to use on a day-to-day basis and secondly rail operators say that this proposal is a political one not a practical one is this a pro bus proposal so um it’s true that the vast majority of people don’t rely on the railways on a day-to-day basis but the railways do serve our economy um to the tune of billions of pounds every year both by moving goods and people around the country uh and although you know people who don’t rely on it they understand that our Railways are broken that they’re simply not working at the moment and as I say we’re not getting good bang for our buck as the taxpayer that’s why we are so committed to this bold reform because we cannot allow the current system to continue any longer so badly failing passengers the economy and the taxpayer now I I’ve seen the criticism from uh the rail operators but the problem is they can’t defend the current system at the Tor is have promised reform for four years now and have failed to progress it so the choic is between the staling failing status quo or the Bold reform that labor has on offer and we’re not ideological about this we are encouraging working with the private sector both through Open Access with Freight and in the wider supply chain which is why these plans today have encouraged endorsement from a really wide range of Industry experts including Keith Williams who was the architect of the Tor reforms thank you uh Jennifer from the BBC hi um passengers are worried about affordability and reliability if there’s so much money being wasted um why can’t you commit to cheaper cheaper tickets and also on reliability um what are you going to do to end the strike can you commit to improving paying conditions thank you so um I can’t today set out that we will lower fairs um not least because they are incredibly complex and the regulation needs uh needs reform as well and but we have said that we will simplify them that will make them more accessible more transparent and more trustworthy for passengers at the moment passengers have to contend with a dizzying array of different types of tickets and fairs and it means they simply don’t trust that they’re getting the best value for the journey um that’s why uh we have things like split uh split save that means that you have to buy different components of the journey in order to get better value we will deliver a best Fair guarantee so that people can always trust uh that they’re getting the lowest uh fair for their Journey just as people currently experience with Transport for London when they tap in and tap out of the system and obviously our ambition would be to make fairs far more affordable but we really think that one of the things that’s keeping up passengers off the railways at the moment is the fact that they simply don’t trust or understand the fair the way fairs are modeled and that’s why simplification is our first um priority uh Fraser from LBC thank you um you say this will be a gradual approach within five years as contracts expire is that then fair to say that it would be a second labor term before we can see any real change you know where all of the system is is joined up as you say thank you so we have a um a very clear plan to deliver these reforms within the first labor term um every single one of the remaining uh private operators and there are 10 that aren’t currently under public ownership under the operator of Last Resort uh either their full contract expires or their core term comes to an end within the first term of a labor government so we’ve commit we will commit to legislation to establish Great British Railways and all those operations will be folded into Great British Railways well within the first term but as I said our plans are twofold and from day one we’ll be bringing every partner together under a strategic partnership a shadow Great British Railways to start delivering a reform because we believe and many in the industry believe that the current government have been hiding behind the fact that they’ve not legislated to say that improvements can’t be made we believe that we can drive basic improvements from day one and that customers would start to begin to see improvements very early on in a labor government uh Katherine from GB news thank you um this is obviously a big announcement um sakir starma when he became leader obviously had plans to nationalize utilities as well is this going to be the one thing that gets nationalized might you be tempted to nationalize water given the unbelievable State of Affairs at TS water the leaks sewage Etc thank you well I think what the plans today and other plans that we’ve set out in in area shows that where the sett isn’t working we’re prepared to take the tough action that is needed uh we have as I have set out you know ion clad and Rachel Reeves has repeatedly said Ironclad fiscal rules and these reforms are within them because we won’t have to pay compensation when the railway operations contracts uh expire water is a different uh settlement because we would have to nationalize the business and it could cost the taxpayer billions of pounds and in the constrained fiscal environment we don’t think that’s immediately the right prior ity instead we would set out plans for regulation and for tough legislation criminal sanctions on water directors who uh dump sewage in our Waters and regulation to ensure that they invest in infrastructure and it’s the water companies that pay the price not consumers but we also have plans for publicly owned Great British energy to act as a challenger to the energy Market as well so I think what these plans on wider reforms demonstrate is that where it’s the pragmatic and right thing to do both the users and the taxpayer we will take those steps but we’re not ideological about it uh Gareth from the telegraph good morning thank you yeah you’ve spoken uh quite a bit about simplifying fairs making it uh more digital introducing automatic delay repay refunds and a best price guarantee similar to how the tfl Oyster card system works this is all very digital heavy and it’s going to rely on apps and digital technology yet there are still tens of millions of people who choose to buy Railway tickets in paper form older people who may not necessarily be using modern smartphone apps how are these systems going to work for those who aren’t using all these fancy down digital Technologies absolutely and you could see from the backlash against the government’s attempts to close almost every ticket office in the country how dear uh those tickets and the staff that um serve them are to millions of of customers across the country not just um the elderly um but people with uh disabilities and and people with additional needs um it’s really important that our stations and and staff are and stations and trains are staffs we’ve got no plans at all to change the level of Workforce or Staffing availability uh and these reforms that we’re setting out are already available on parts of the network that is what is so dysfunctional about the current system that uh Innovations like digital season tickets have been able to be delivered on certain operators but the rest of the network simply will not deliver them despite attempts from uh the Department of Transport and indeed former secretaries of state so that’s why we are setting up plans for unified simplified Network that means that these Innovations can be child and where they work for the passenger they can be made sure that they are available to everyone uh fairly across the country uh and finally Sophia from The Mirror um hi so just off the back of that I just wanted to just double check on that point so can you absolutely guarantee that ticket offices will never be closed if labor gets into power and then just a quick second one how will your plans improve the experience of disabled people on the railways thank you um well we have absolutely no plans uh to close uh ticket office or to change the Staffing levels on the on the railways and in terms of accessibility it’s really important and one of our key metrics that Great British Railways will be held to account on both by the Secretary of State and by the passenger Watchdog is accessibility far too much of our network is not accessible to disabled uh users and they are often and they often feel very overlooked that’s why it’s one of our top metrics and priorities to hold them to account and the passenger watch do will be given tough new powers uh to sanction Great British Railways if they don’t meet those metrics and those objectives thank you ever so much for joining us this morning to launch um Labor’s plans to get Britain moving and I’m off to catch my train thank [Applause] you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e