LABOUR'S partial renationalisation plan for the railways will extend to Scotland if it rejects independence, the Shadow Transport Secretary.
Mary Creagh, on a visit to Glasgow, said the proposal of a "new deal" to allow public companies to compete alongside private ones for rail franchises, such as the West and East Coast main lines, would apply in Scotland with Holyrood getting powers to create the new system, covering ScotRail.
The Scottish Government has said it will consider different ownership models for the rail network under independence amid complaints that UK law prohibits domestic public sector companies from running Scottish trains but does not exclude foreign public companies.
Yet Labour stressed Scotland "does not need independence" to reform rail ownership as it would devolve the power to consider public sector bids if it gets into government.
Ms Creagh, who will be joined in outlining Labour's new approach by James Kelly, Scottish Labour's Transport spokesman, said: "The first priority should be passengers, not profit. That's why we need a new deal for our railways, in Scotland and across the UK."
She noted how the Scotland to London East Coast line, which had served Scottish passengers well, had worked in public hands.
"That's why Labour will learn the lessons from East Coast and make sure that public sector companies can compete on a level playing field with the private sector," she explained.
Mr Kelly added: "We will devolve these powers to the Scottish Parliament and open up our railways to public sector companies.
"We need our railways to be working for passengers. Under the SNP more than half a billion pounds of public money funds the rail franchise. That's why we need public sector companies to be able to compete on a level playing field with the private sector," he added.
But an SNP spokesman said: "Only a Yes vote will allow governments elected by the people of Scotland the powers needed to decide the best way to structure our railways."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article