Network Rail joins the public sector: but don't call it 'nationalisation'
The East Coast franchise is already in state control: now Network Rail is to become, nominally, a 'public sector organisation' . . . .
The semantics and equivocation over Network Rail's status already resembles a saga to equal Boris Johnson on his ambitions. The government insists its impending reclassification is a "statistical decision" – not (dread word) nationalisation.. . . .
. . . . the track operator appears likely to be excluded from Freedom of Information (FoI) legislation. Manuel Cortes, leader of the TSSA transport workers' union, which is campaigning to ensure FoI applies, says it will mean "a public sector firm, carrying a £30bn debt mountain and with a five-year spending budget of £38bn, being removed from financial scrutiny by the very people who are paying all these vast bills – the UK taxpayers."
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One member, Lord Berkeley, who chairs the Rail Freight Group, says: "I think it's a very big deal. A special member will appoint a special director and will fix the director's bonuses, executive pay and approve strategies. If that isn't state control, what is?"
