Friday 21 September 2018 7:51 am | Updated: Tuesday 21 May 2019 4:27 pm

DEBATE: Is Chris Grayling to blame for the rail chaos earlier this year?

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Is Chris Grayling to blame for the rail chaos earlier this year?

Andy McDonald, Labour MP and shadow transport secretary, says YES.

Chris Grayling’s reverse Midas touch has made a mess of the railways. Under his watch, passengers have suffered timetabling chaos, ever increasing fares, and broken promises on investment.

In any other line of work, someone who is not doing their job would be shown the door. However, Grayling continues to be allowed to cause chaos on the railways, because Theresa May is too weak to sack him.

The transport secretary sits at the top of the pyramid which is the rail industry. Despite his claims that it isn’t his fault, how the rail industry delivers to the public is his responsibility.

Numerous reviews over many years have highlighted major failings on our railways, but successive Conservative governments have done nothing about it. We don’t need another one to tell us that rail isn’t working. The launch of yet another review this week is simply more inaction and buck passing from Grayling. What passengers need is public ownership of rail – and that’s what Labour is offering.

Andy McDonald, Labour MP and shadow transport secretary, says YES.

Sophie Jarvis, policy adviser at the Adam Smith Institute, says NO.

It’s the system, stupid. British railways need a complete structural rejig.

We need to move away from the soporific debate of nationalisation versus privatisation. At least Chris Grayling looks like he’s willing to inquire, to listen, and to change what’s not working.

The government should learn from airline competition and scrap the one-size-fits-all model of franchising to give passengers real choice on long-distance routes. Competition is king, and more competition could be injected into the current franchise model by making it easier for Open Access Operators to compete on long-distance routes. Companies that compete like Hull Trains and Grand Central lead the league tables for value and customer satisfaction.

The problem is not that trains are privately run, but that they are too heavily government controlled. Whitehall dictating everything – from numbers of trains and their timetables, to whether they have a drinks trolley on board – costs consumers dearly.

Consumers are justifiably miffed, but pointing the blame at a minister isn’t the answer. And neither is renationalisation. Open Access is.