Heidi Alexander, nearly running out of train operators to nationalise, has found a new target: the trains themselves. She used her conference speech to build on the news that Avanti will be “hauled into public ownership” in March, with Cross Country and East Midlands Railway to follow next year. Her gag for the hall: it may be the first time “Avanti” and “earliest” have been heard in the same sentence. Very good, but not so funny for the commuters forced to use the dreadful service…
Buried within Alexander’s speech was the news that Ministers will now “explore whether the state can directly own the new trains we order“, ending three decades of leasing from rolling stock companies. Alexander’s case is that operators spent over £4 billion in 2024 leasing and maintaining trains they didn’t own. What she failed to mention is why they lease in the first place. Trains cost a fortune up front. Buying fleets outright means billions of new capital costs for the taxpayer…
Back in 2024, publishing its rail strategy “Get Britain Moving” from the safety of opposition, Labour said taking on the cost of renationalising rolling stock “would not be responsible”. Fast forward two years, and exactly that is now the plan. Heidi Alexander just blew the DfT budget in half a sentence, unnoticed by most reporters…
Burnham said in his main conference speech: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say: thank you, Keir.”