Railway Cost Cutting Plan To Be Announced

The government is set to reveal how it plans to save billions on railway spending.

A review last year by former civil servant Sir Roy McNulty recommended running be cut by a third, which would bring the UK in line with the rest of the European networks.

The review also criticised the level of wage’s paid to workers and warned that some ticket offices may need to be closed.

Transport Secretary Justine Greening will today present the governments response to Sir Roy’s paper.

Transport unions have expressed their fears that thousands of jobs could be at risk.

General secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Bob Crow said: "If the government want to cut the costs of running Britain's railways, they could do it at a stroke by returning them to public ownership and eliminating the waste of fragmentation and profiteering that has bled the network dry.

Instead they are prescribing more of the same."

And Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has warned that if local ticket offices were closed then "the station itself will not be far behind it".

He said, "We are in no doubt that the government's plans for rail will be cast in the image of their plans for the NHS - smashing up what's left of a national system and allowing the private train companies to run riot in the name of profit…”

It is thought that between £700m and £1bn could be saved if the recommendations made by the report are implemented.

Despite privatisation passengers still pay around 40% of railway costs and price rises in January saw an average fare increase of 6%.

Sir Roy told the BBC Today programme that, "One of the central points of our report is that passengers are already paying fares that are too high.

"Our estimate was that passengers in this country are paying about 30% more than their counterparts elsewhere and the cost reduction is essential if that situation is going to be redressed."

Christian Wolmer, a transport analyst, has said the problem is fragmentation within the industry, "When it was one industry, British Rail, it was subsidised to the tune of around a billion-and-a-half in today's money and at the moment it's getting four billion pounds of taxpayers' money.

"The thing that has changed is that it has been broken up into lots of little bits, lots of different operators, lots of various engineering companies, all sorts of bits are being privatised and broken up, and that's where the cost is."

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