LABOUR piled the pressure on beleaguered Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today with nationwide demonstrations demanding the immediate renationalisation of the railways.

At London’s King’s Cross station, as the East Coast Main Line service, rebranded London North-Eastern Railway (LNER), returned to public control, Jeremy Corbyn blasted the service’s multiple franchising failures.

The Department for Transport was forced to hand the route to its “operator of last resort,” controlled by the department, following the collapse of the Virgin Trains East Coast franchise.

The Labour leader said: “We need the railway publicly owned and under public control — and we need it as quickly as possible.

“It really is time that we, the public, owned and ran the railways. We pay for the infrastructure, we do the investment, we own an awful lot of it — we should own the whole of it.”

Mr Corbyn was joined in London by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, who said the recent rail timetabling fiasco had been made “significantly worse” by Mr Grayling’s refusal to take “personal responsibility.”

She told the Star: “That’s not just party political: I think ordinary commuters who may or may not have voted Labour in the past are really upset that Grayling is taking no responsibility when, in fact, all roads lead to him.”

TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes told the Star: “Chris Grayling would have rather walked barefoot on broken glass than nationalise the East Coast Mainline. The only reason he had to do it is because the economics of privatised railways simply don’t add up.

“We have had a fantastic response, not just from commuters but from rail workers too. I think the British public has had more than enough of being ripped off left, right and centre by private rail operators.”

Labour organised more than 200 events at train stations across Britain as part of its Rail Mayhem campaign day.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry’s attempt to join campaigners in Stevenage was delayed by a cancelled train. After a morning speaking to angry commuters, Ms Thornberry asked: “Is it really so unreasonable to expect a reliable service?”