It is time for the government to get themselves off a painful and expensive hook and nationalise the railways.

The prime minister should simply give the nod to transport secretary Alistair Darling to re-create a national, integrated, publicly-owned railway industry, genuinely accountable to the electorate through parliament saving billions of the chancellor’s (and the taxpayers’) cash into the bargain.

It seems John Major privatised the railways in an attempt to show that he was as tough as Mrs Thatcher – a macho posture that has had disastrous consequences. 

But even his former leader refused to privatise the railways, as she guessed rightly that this would be calamitous and destroy any vestige of belief that privatisation policies were economically rational and socially desirable.

Subsequent twists and turns of government policy have merely avoided the issue and put off the day of reckoning.

So what has happened in the real world of Britain’s railways?  What about costs for a start?  Since privatisation, rail and track renewal costs have trebled and quadrupled.

Myriad private trackwork companies have in effect been paying each other vast unjustifiable sums of money which come ultimately from the public purse.  The cost-plus contract has become merely a mechanism for pouring gigantic sums of public money into fat cat pockets.

Network Rail is now taking maintenance back in-house and anticipating savings of hundreds of millions of pounds, with work done much more quickly too.

In the other half of the industry, the train operating companies lease rolling stock from their banker owners at rates as high as 30 per cent - more fleecing of the public purse.

The whole industry is also bedevilled by financial bureaucracy  − managing contracts, sub-contracts, sub-sub-contracts, franchises and the like.  These staff could actually be employed in running railway services in a sensible state-owned system.

Then there is the myth that re-nationalisation would be costly.  Not true.

Network Rail is already effectively in the public sector and railway trackwork contracts could all be taken in-house, saving billions over time. 
The train operating companies have franchises only, and these could simply be awarded to the Strategic Rail Authority, Network Rail, or some new national integrated railway organisation. 

As for rolling stock, if the new nationalised railway company simply forced down leasing charges by using its monopoly purchasing power, the banks would surely wish to unload the locomotives and carriage sets as quickly as possible.

The stock could be bought back, saving billions in leasing costs thereafter.  If the government wants to save money, to cut costs, nationalisation is the solution.

And finally, it is time to give credit to British Rail which has been unjustly maligned for so long.

BR’s only real problem was that it was starved of investment for decades.  Annual investment in railways in France has been two and a half times that of Britain, and in Holland, three times. 

The integrated state railway systems on the continent of Europe are light years ahead of Britain.  We could have been up with them had BR been able to invest at similar levels.

Even so, British Rail worked miracles on a pittance according to rail regulator Tom Winsor.  It is now clear to everyone that they did a better job than the privateers, at a quarter of the cost.

So what is wrong with nationalisation?  Returning the whole industry to public ownership is vital and the only logical way forward.

Kelvin Hopkins is Labour MP for Luton North.