UK Parliament / Open data

High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill

I will carry on, because I know that people want to contribute to the debate.

In illustrating the benefits of publicly owned operators, one could hardly ask for a better example than the recent east coast main line. The last Labour Government took the important step of bringing that back into public operation after the private operator reneged on its obligations in 2009. East coast proved itself to be one of the most efficient operators, returning more than £1 billion to the taxpayer in premium payments as well as investing every penny of profit back into the service. In addition, fares were kept down in real terms in 2014 at a time when no privately run franchise took the same step. East coast had record passenger satisfaction and its engagement with the workforce was an unparalleled success.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
607 c1612 
Session
2015-16
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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