Labour leader says that his party 'are interested in innovative solutions' to the railways but says it has to be 'affordable'

Ed Miliband suggested yesterday that Labour may favour taking some rail franchises back into public ownership when he spoke of his support for "innovative solutions".

The Labour leader told the Guardian that the renegotiation of a rail franchise could mark the moment when a line could be taken into public ownership as he cited the example of the East Coast line.

Miliband said: "We are interested in innovative solutions when it comes to the railways. It's got to be affordable. That is absolutely definite. The experience of East Coast, which has been in public hands, has been a good experience.

"The government is dogmatically wanting to privatise East Coast. I don't think you should approach this issue with dogma on either side. So we are interested in innovative solutions."

Asked whether it would make more sense to allow franchises to be taken back into public ownership when they expire, Miliband said: "You're right to say we've got to look at these issues around the franchises. There are different models you can use. You can have a competitive model where there is a public option like there is in East Coast at the moment. So we are looking at different models for this."

Miliband was also strongly supportive of Sir David Higgins, the new HS2 chairman, as he made clear Labour would be supporting the hybrid bill for the construction of the first stage of the line. He said: "The recent report by David Higgins was a step forward not only because of issues of cost but because he is on to the idea that there are issues about connections across the country as well as the connections to London. He is looking more creatively about how you make this work."