WHAT a summer! What a whirlwind! What a landslide! The new Labour government was elected on Thursday July 4; Keir Starmer, the prime minister — doesn’t that sound good? — appointed Louise Haigh as the new secretary of state for transport on the afternoon of Friday July 5; appointed Peter Hendy as the new rail minister on Tuesday July 9; and we met them at Great Minster House in Whitehall on the morning of Wednesday July 10. Lou and Peter could not have seen us sooner! 

We set out what we believed was needed to resolve our national pay dispute which has dragged on, under the Tories, for two years — we first balloted for industrial action in June 2022 and we first went on strike at the end of the following month — and they promptly appointed people to meet us, and the first formal meeting was scheduled for Tuesday July 23. 

After a couple more meetings, we got an offer on Wednesday August 14 — a good offer, a fair offer, and, what we have always asked for, a clean offer, without a land grab for all our terms and conditions — which we have put to our members at the 16 train companies involved: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, c2c, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Northern Thameslink, Great Western Railway, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway and Island Line, TransPennine Express, and West Midlands Trains — with a recommendation to accept, in a referendum which went out on Wednesday August 28 and which will close on Wednesday September 18.

It’s good to report that the grown-ups have finally entered the room in the shape of Lou and her team. That’s why we have a resolution that works for train drivers, for passengers, and for taxpayers; that works for the railway and for Britain.

It’s a real breath of fresh air to have people in government who want to work with — and not against — us.

We also welcome, of course, the way this Labour government is working, at pace, to honour its election pledges and manifesto commitments.

The creation of Great British Railways was mentioned in the King’s Speech on Wednesday July 17 and we held a rally at Westminster ahead of the second reading of the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill in the House of Commons on Monday July 29.

This is a big moment not just for the railway, but for Britain, and a big win for Aslef, as we have been campaigning for a publicly owned railway for three decades and worked closely with the Labour Party, in opposition, to see this promise embedded in the manifesto.

Now, this week, at the 156th Trades Union Congress, we are pushing for the renationalisation of rail freight, to work towards completing the jigsaw and bringing all of the pieces of Britain’s railway network back into public ownership.

While we welcome the government’s plan to create Great British Railways, and to bring the passenger companies back into public ownership as the contracts expire, we believe we should also be examining ways to include the rail freight companies, the rolling stock companies, and the open access operators in our plans for an integrated transport structure.

The privatised rail freight sector really is red in tooth and claw. While the passenger companies enjoyed virtual monopolies — giving the lie to the John Major idea of competition — we suffer a real and deleterious race to the bottom in freight as the companies bid against each other, often trying to cut costs as well as corners, to win contracts.

This, together with the economic downturn and erosion of our country’s industrial base under the Tories, especially the challenges in the steel sector and the slowdown in construction, has, unfortunately, seen redundancies in rail freight. 

But we know that rail freight plays a vital role in decarbonisation and Britain’s efforts to achieve net zero, while also contributing £2.45 billion in economic benefits to this country.

The sector is also instrumental in maintaining the infrastructure of our railway network.

That’s why we will call on Congress to lobby the government for the expansion of publicly owned rail freight services with the aim, eventually, of a fully renationalised rail freight sector in Britain. 

Mick Whelan has spent 40 years on the railway, 40 years as an active trade unionist, and most of his adult life as a member of the Labour Party. He was elected general secretary of Aslef in 2011; became chair of the Trade Union & Labour Party Liaison Organisation, aka Labour Unions, in 2016; and, in 2017, was elected to the Labour Party’s NEC.