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.

RMT press release, issued today

THE DISPROPORTIONATE impact on working people of the economic recession underlines the need for the trade union movement to campaign for public ownership of public services and utilities and for a massive programme of council-house building, transport union RMT will argue at the TUC today.

In today's debate on the economy the union will urge Congress to make the economic, social and environmental case for public ownership and to highlight the inefficiency demonstrated by the huge sums being wasted by the part-privatisation of London Underground.

Believe it or not, the government wants the Tyne & Wear Metro (Underground) go down the same disastrous PPP route as London Underground.

Please support the campaign to keep Tyne & Wear Metro a wholly publicly owned company:

• Read and sign the 10 Downing Street petition here
• Find out more by clicking here.