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Labour pledges first steps to public railway
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh at the Hitachi rail manufacturing plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham
'These figures should be a wake-up call'
LABOUR has pledged a railway revival, announcing plans yesterday to bring most of the privatised industry back into public hands.
In proposals broadly welcomed by unions and campaigners, shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh confirmed that train franchises will be taken into the public sector as and when contracts expire if the party wins the next general election.
This will mean the whole network will join infrastructure owner Network Rail in a publicly-run system within the first term of a Labour government.
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