Can you believe it the Evening Standard award winning journalist Andrew Gilligan tonight Writes

" Now is the moment to renationalise the railways and it has never been cheaper or more possible. Rather like the banks, many of the companies which hold Britain's rail franchises will soon become disastrously over-extended. They have contracted to pay massive sums to the Government for the right to operate trains, assuming that passenger numbers would continue to grow strongly and that fares could continue to rise well above inflation.

In a recession, both those assumptions look highly questionable but the Government has said that franchises will not be renegotiated. What that means, if ministers stick to their guns, is that some of the most justly hated companies in Britain First Great Western, Virgin Trains, SWT will have no option but to give back the keys. The franchises will revert to the state, and it won't cost taxpayers a penny.

The stations, tracks and signals are already in public hands. And thus, with a few exceptions, we could restore the railways to single ownership, a single command structure, and sanity. The only thing holding ministers back is their terror of the N-word but after spending £37 billion on partly nationalising the banks, that Rubicon has surely been crossed.

Last week, in recognition of a crisis even more serious than the economy's, the Government announced a new target of reducing C02 by four-fifths. If we are to meet it, one absolute necessity is a railway that runs as an integrated network, that functions seven days a week and that does not charge you more than it costs to travel by car.

Nice work on the banks, Gordon. But renationalising the railways would mark the real death of discredited Thatcherite neo-liberalism, and millions of commuters would thank you for it."

The full article appears on the Link below

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23575101-details/Now+can+...

Who is Andrew Gilligan and what has he written previously click below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gilligan

Is now the time for all branches to pass an appropriate motion calling for the immediate
renationalising of the railways in the best interests of commuters,rail users and workers?