The SNP has moved to block the UK Government from reprivatising the east coast main line rail service.
The party’s MPs have joined more than 50 others from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens in signing an early day motion at Westminster calling on the government not to sell off the line.
And last night unions made fresh claims that the deal could see third-class travel brought back to British tracks for the first time in 50 years.
Aberdeen-based FirstGroup is “very keen” to take on the route, which runs from London to the Granite City and Inverness, as is Channel Tunnel operator Eurostar.
However, figures announced last month showed East Coast paid £208million in premium and dividend payments to the Treasury in the last financial year – which has fuelled the campaign to keep it in private hands.
Yesterday ministers were accused of trying to “rush through a botched privatisation”. Labour said the coalition was trying to “rewrite history” by downplaying the success of the line in public ownership.
Shadow transport minister Lilian Greenwood said ministers are so keen to privatise the route, they redacted a prospectus for the proposed sell-off.
As part of the privatisation, a prospectus has been drawn up with details of the sell-off.
But Ms Greenwood told a debate a number of changes had been made to it to make it appear public ownership of the line had not been successful.
She said: “We saw the same confusion in the leaked East Coast Franchise Prospectus, which raised the prospect of third-class travel. It is clear, at a late stage, a decision was taken to alter the positive references to east coast performance since 2009. So the sentence ‘staff engagement is at an all-time high’ was altered to ‘staff engagement has improved’. Then there was a reference to ‘the current successful business’, downgraded to just ‘the current business’.
“Then the facts were erased completely. I would like to share a few examples: page 19, ‘East coast main line’s public reputation has remained consistently high’. Page 20, ‘since beginning of 2011-12 east coast main line has been recipient of 35 industry awards’. Page 27, ‘East coast’s passenger satisfaction was higher than the 89% for all long-distance operators’.
“On page 31, ‘over the last two years east coast main line has developed genuine choice for customers in terms of fares and customer offering’. All deleted and we do not know who ordered those changes.”
The RMT union claimed Transport Minister Stephen Hammond said in a written answer that firms taking on the route would be “free to consider” initiatives like third-class travel.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “As well as turning the clock back over 50 years, this government are also happy to write off a billion pounds of returns to the taxpayer.”