Sunday 25 January 2015

Where To Get Off

John Prescott writes:

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker made his name for being a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

He supported a judicial review against me as Secretary of State for Planning for granting ­permission for a new ground for Brighton and Hove Albion FC

Part of the proposed ­stadium’s car park was in Baker’s constituency, Lewes, and he accused me of enjoying sumptuous hospitality at the old Brighton ground when Hull played there. It was a steak and kidney pie!

I now discover Mr Baker’s local Lib Dem Party received a sumptuous contribution of £3,500 from Sir Brian Souter, the chairman of Stagecoach trains and buses.

Souter has made millions from creating one of Britain’s biggest ­privatised transport operators with Stagecoach buses, East Midlands Trains, South West Trains and owning half of Virgin Trains.

Virgin Trains lost its franchise on Cross Country trains, were refused the East Coast route in 2002 and was about to lose the West Coast line in franchise bidding.

But under this government, Souter’s luck has changed. Virgin and Stagecoach have won the franchise to run the East Coast line from publicly-owned East Coast Trains.

Labour took it back into ­ownership in 2009 after two – private – companies, GNER and National Express, overbid and under-­delivered.

They’d begged for more subsidy and we rightly said no.

Since then nationalised East Coast Trains has seen the best performance ever, record passenger satisfaction levels and has given £1billion profit back to the taxpayer, which was reinvested.

On the West Coast route, Souter’s Virgin Trains only managed to give a third of that back in a dividend to its shareholders. Not one penny of that improved the service.

And who was the rail minister while the East Coast franchise was being put out to tender? Yes, Norman Baker.

The same Norman Baker who, when asked to comment about train fares increasing above inflation, with some up by 50 per cent, said they were “not nearly as ­expensive as is being presented”.

During Baker’s time as a transport minister from 2010 to October 2013, Souter was paid £876,000 a year and Stagecoach was making a pre-tax profit of £202.5million.

Three months after Baker left his transport job, Virgin and Stagecoach’s joint bid for the East Coast franchise was shortlisted.

And a month after Souter won the route, Baker ­registered the £3,500 donation to his local party.

Asked about Souter’s donation, Baker reportedly said: “He thought I was a good transport minister and he wants me back in Parliament.”

I bet he bloody does!

Souter – who says he made the donation as a friend after Baker left the Department for Transport – is also a major donor to the SNP, who would like to take control of Scottish trains.

The East Coast and West Coast contracts, now in Souter’s control, run through Scotland. Surely that could become a conflict of interest.

A similar story can be found with Souter’s Stagecoach bus company and its competitors.

Since Baker became a transport minister in 2010, more than 1,300 routes have been cut, fares have risen 25 per cent but the private bus firms still demand millions to subsidise unprofitable services.

As with all privatised transport, it’s all about profit not performance, with fewer services, higher fares and the taxpayer paying a lot more.

It’s time to make bus companies cross-subsidise less profitable routes from profitable ones – some councils in the North are now doing this.

Labour’s transport spokesman Michael Dugher’s plan to give more powers to local authorities to put pressure on bus firms is spot on.

Our focus must be on boosting passenger movement, providing a good service and keeping fares low.

Souter and the other bus barons should be told exactly where to get off.

2 comments:

  1. As you know, John often uses his column to float things being discussed at the top of New Old Labour. This one is highly welcome.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let's just hope that Labour don't have to rely on the support of Souter's hired Holyrood goons in government after the election...

    ReplyDelete