GREEN Party leader Natalie Bennett claimed yesterday that Labour had abandoned public ownership during an attack on its rail policies.

Ms Bennett (pictured) launched the broadside against her left-wing rivals after speaking to hard-pressed passengers at Cambridge railway station.

She used the campaign visit to highlight her party’s pledge to end the “privatisation experiment” on Britain’s railways.

“The Greens are the only party who will bring the railways back into public hands,” she said.

“Common ownership may have been abandoned by the Labour Party, but the Greens still believe that key national assets like the railways should be in public hands, not being run for private profit.”

Labour has committed to giving public-sector operations a “level playing field” to bid to run rail franchises.

And shadow transport minister Michael Dugher signalled that he was prepared to go further in February when he called privatisation a “disaster.”

A one-year freeze on rail fares is also part of Labour’s manifesto, launched by Ed Miliband on Monday.

But Ms Bennett said: “The Labour Party’s half-hearted policies on the railways don’t go near far enough to solving the transport problems passengers are facing.”

Labour’s position on rail ownership received a mixed response from the unions.

Mick Cash, leader of the non-affiliated rail union RMT, said it showed a “real lack of courage and ambition.”

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Labour-affliated Aslef, welcomed it as the chance for publicly run rail “after 20 years of failure geared towards the vested interests.”