{"id":75733,"date":"2018-01-04T01:05:51","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T18:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/rail-passengers-must-come-before-profits-letters\/"},"modified":"2018-01-04T03:05:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T20:05:45","slug":"rail-passengers-must-come-before-profits-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/rail-passengers-must-come-before-profits-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Rail passengers must come before profits | Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#013;<br \/>\nReaders respond to the sharp rise in UK train fares announced at the start of the yearIt\u2019s outrageous that Chris Grayling plans to bail out Virgin Trains East Coast by up to \u00a32bn \u2013 Labour is absolutely right to stand up for passengers (Tom Watson calls on Chris Grayling to quit over \u2018grubby\u2019 East Coast rail deal, 31 December). Rail passengers and taxpayers are sick of the rip-off of privatisation, and this bailout is the final straw \u2013 76% of us think the railways should be in public ownership, and when East Coast was in public hands, it enjoyed the highest rate of customer satisfaction of\u00a0the whole network, at 91%.We call on Chris Grayling to bring our\u00a0railways into public ownership, starting with the East Coast line. That means he\u2019ll need to reinstate Directly Operated Railways as a publicly owned operator, ready to run rail franchises. In\u00a0the meantime, we want the transport secretary to ensure that rail companies don\u2019t get away with breaching the terms of their franchise contract, as Virgin Trains East Coast has done. This sets a dangerous precedent to other private operators. It\u2019s time to put passengers and\u00a0the public before shareholders.Cat Hobbs Director, We Own It, Mick Whelan General secretary, Aslef, Ellie Harrison Founder, Bring Back British Rail, Neal Lawson Chair, Compass, Mick Cash General secretary, RMT, Lynn Sloman Director, Transport for Quality of Life, Manuel Cortes General secretary, TSSA, Paul Nowak Deputy general secretary, TUC, Bobby Morton National officer, Unite Continue reading&#8230;&#013;<br \/>\n&#013;<br \/>\nSource : theguardian.com&#013;<br \/>\nRead more&#8230;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/money\/2018\/jan\/03\/rail-passengers-must-come-before-profits\" target=\"_blank\">Rail passengers must come before profits | Letters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#013; Readers respond to the sharp rise in UK train fares announced at the start of&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-jHv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":87691,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/chris-grayling-defends-expensive-last-minute-rail-fares\/","url_meta":{"origin":75733,"position":0},"title":"Chris Grayling defends expensive last-minute rail fares","date":"May 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Transport secretary says passengers should plan in advance to avoid fares 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News&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/etihad-rail-1000x667-1.jpg?fit=1000%2C667&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":89456,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/heathrow-expansion-under-more-scrutiny-as-grayling-broadens-regulators-oversight\/","url_meta":{"origin":75733,"position":4},"title":"Heathrow expansion under more scrutiny as Grayling broadens regulator&#039;s oversight","date":"May 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r \r \r Source : telegraph.co.uk\r Read more...Heathrow expansion under more scrutiny as Grayling broadens regulator's oversight","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Property 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