Labour reinforces its Plan for Rail in Manifesto launch

The Labour Party has released its manifesto today (Thursday 13 June), sticking to the “Get Britain Moving” manifesto that its Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh launched in April.

There was little mention of rail in the 136-document other than to highlight some of its promises, including its intention to bring passenger services back into public ownership once service contracts had expired and to reiterate its pledge to establish Great British Railways (GBR), which the party says will be responsible for investment, day-to-day operational delivery as well as driving innovation and improvements for passengers.

Labour will work with the governments of Scotland and Wales once GBR is operational but did not specify how power and responsibility would be shared.

Labour also pledged to work with the devolved regions in England, ensuring that Mayors will have a role in designing services in their areas, although it stopped short of detailing how it would be implemented.

Echoing the pledges made by the party in its plan for rail, a duty to promote and grow the use of rail freight will be set, however, like the Conservatives, it did not specify a target.

Whilst Labour is planning on moving passenger services into public ownership, it is still pledging to ensure that open access operators will have a role to play in its reform plans.

A passenger watchdog will also be set up which the party says will be tasked to drive up standards.

Whilst the Conservatives have pledged to build a new rail link between Liverpool and Manchester, Labour has only pledged to improve rail connectivity across the north of England.

Although its leader, Sir Kier Starmer has recently confirmed it has held discussions with Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham regarding investment.

Ticketing reform did not feature in the manifesto despite being a key part of its rail plan in April.

The paper pledged to overhaul the ticketing system, with better integrated timetabling and ticketing a key promise.

As well as ticketing reform, HS2 is not mentioned at all in the manifesto.

This is of little surprise however, as it also didn’t feature in the original document in April.