Entire rail network to be sold before poll

CHRISTIAN WOLMAR

Transport Correspondent

Ministers have ordered the rail franchising process to be speeded up so that the whole network can be privatised before the next election.

They have told Roger Salmon, the Franchising Director responsible for privatising passenger trains, to "review" his timetable with the aim of bringing forward the letting of remaining franchises, to ensure the whole process will be completed by next spring.

Selling off the franchises quickly will give the Tories a pre-election boost and pose problems for Labour if it wins the election. With Railtrack, the three main railfreight companies and the 13 large rail maintenance companies due to be sold this spring, little will be left in the public sector by next year, apart from the Channel Tunnel freight service and some property. "It's a scorched earth policy", a Labour source said.

British Rail will be left as a shell with a role ressembling the residuary bodies created after the abolition of the GLC and the metropolitan counties a decade ago. It cannot be abolished without new legislation as it is a statutory body.

So far only three of the 25 franchises have been let - South West Trains, Great Western and London, Tilbury & Southend. They are due to be handed over to their new private sector operators on Sunday. Final bids must be submitted by 1 March for a further four, and the process has begun for another four, making 11 out of 25.

Ministers have told Mr Salmon they want the remaining 14 offered to the private sector by autumn.

A rail industry source said: "They want this as the flagship of their privatisation policy." The remaining franchises are the most complicated and least desirable, taking in the heavily loss-making rural network of Regional Railways.

There are complications about the structure of services in metropolitan areas where services are heavily subsidised by local passenger transport executives controlled by Labour councillors.

Some in the rail industry doubt whether the sale can take place at breakneck speed, as the relationships between the PTEs and the franchising director have not been sorted out. nAfter a three-month delay, the Government has appointed a new chairman for the the rail watchdog, the Central Rail Users' Consultative Committee. David Bertram, 62, was formerly chairman of the Eastern England watchdog and is a businessman. He is also chairman of Doncaster NHS Trust.