Andy Burnham has pledged to renationalise the railways “line by line” if he becomes prime minister.

The shadow health secretary will launch his Labour leadership election manifesto on Thursday, promising to end the “fragmentation and privatisation” of the rail system.

“We need a new approach to our railways – one that puts passengers before profit. That’s why I will work to bring the railways back under public control and public ownership,” Burnham will say in the manifesto.

Pointing to the success of the east coast mainline when it was in public ownership, Burnham will promise to set up a national rail governing body accountable to the transport secretary, to further regulate the bus network and campaign for an east-to-west high-speed rail route.

Burnham will claim the UK railway system costs 40% more to run than other systems across Europe and that private investment in the railways has halved since 2010 at the same time as private profits have grown.

The announcement comes as Burnham’s rival Jeremy Corbyn appears to be ahead in the leadership contest. Last month, a YouGov poll for the Times put the MP for Islington North ahead, with 43% of the first-preference vote, and he has gained the backing of Unison, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite.

Corbyn’s surprise surge has left his immediate rivals – Burnham and Yvette Cooper – struggling to compete for attention, though Burnham is still the bookies’ favourite to win the race.



Corbyn has pledged to renationalise the railways and bring energy companies back into public ownership. A YouGov poll from May 2014 suggested 60% of the public were in favour of renationalising the railways, compared with 20% who were against.

Burnham’s rivals said the policy had been taken straight from Labour’s general election manifesto, which promised to legislate to allow a public sector operator to “take on lines and challenge the private train-operating companies on a level playing field”.

They argued that the majority of rail franchises were up for tender in the next five years, making the policy important for the 2015 election but leaving it less meaningful as a policy for the 2020 general election.

Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, said the union was “extremely pleased” that the future of the railways was being discussed as part of Labour’s leadership election. “Jeremy has pledged to bring our railways back into public ownership and Andy has now announced their ‘progressive renationalisation’,” he said. “However, it appears that Andy wants to leave some kind of bidding process in place. This is costly and unnecessary.

“Andy should follow Scottish Labour’s example. They are campaigning extremely hard to stop the SNP bidding process which is likely to see lifeline CalMac ferry services privatised. Passengers are sick to their back teeth of private rail companies making profits at their expense. A no ifs, no buts pledge to bring our railways back into public ownership is a clear vote winner.”

In a seminar in Leeds on Tuesday, Corbyn launched a document called Northern Future, in which he outlined plans to rebalance the British economy. In addition to greater investment in the rail network in the north, he would seek to encourage manufacturing in the north to reduce Britain’s dependence on the services industry.

Corbyn said: “None of what we have said on this platform today would be seen as remotely exceptional, extreme or leftwing in Germany, where they proudly have public investment in all kinds of industries and don’t feel ashamed about it. Why have we got this obsession with not getting public involvement in what is the essential basis of our society and our economy?”