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Metro 'not being privatised'

Trade Unions have been protesting this week against what they claim are plans to “privatise” the Tyne and Wear Metro. At the same time, transport operator Nexus denied it had any such plans.

Nexus invited businesses to St James’s Park in Newcastle this week to discuss the Metro’s future, and members of the RMT and other unions protested at the ground while the discussions were conducted on Tuesday.

Nexus denied it planned to privatise the Metro and said it was looking at the best way to spend several hundred million pounds from the government for modernisation.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The Metro is a public-sector success story. It is beyond belief that anyone could want to split it up and hive its operations off along the same disastrous lines as national railway network.”

Bernard Garner, Director General of Nexus, said: “It was clear from today’s event there is huge interest in our plans across the European rail and engineering industry. Metro: All Change is one of the biggest investment programmes in the UK rail network, with £350 million invested in modernisation and millions more spent on operating the system.

“Metro is not being privatised. Nexus will still own Metro and set the service specification, but it is right we test whether the private sector, acting as contractors to Nexus, can provide better value to the taxpayer, who is funding all of this.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .