THE TUC welcomed Labour’s pledge to renationalise the railways today — but called for extension of public ownership across transport.

Moving a composite motion on transport policy, RMT president Alex Gordon said reversing 30 years of disastrous privatisation was a victory belonging to the whole trade union movement — as well as “passengers’ organisations, disabled people’s organisations, women’s organisations and community campaigns” who had fought tirelessly for a publicly owned railway.

Next steps should include scrapping open-access rail operators and action to “end the egregious rolling stock racket … we own the tracks, we don’t own the trains, and that means being fleeced for hundreds of millions of pounds every year.”