The rail union RMT this morning slammed reports that the Government are planning to sell off a ‘gold-plated’ 30 year lease on the proposed High Speed 2 rail link.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
“The fact that the Government are planning to privatise for profit this important High Speed rail development is a scandal – the news that Goldman Sachs are reportedly in the frame as potential bidders should set the alarm bells ringing up and down the length of the route.
“Here we have a company right at the centre of the US sub-prime crisis that sparked the banking collapse, and a company being hauled into the courts in New York, being touted as bidders for a project at the heart of the future of the UK transport system.
“It just shows that when there is a fast buck to be made the usual suspects come crawling out of the woodwork.
“This Government has learnt nothing from the catastrophic, lethal and expensive failures of rail privatisation and through both High Speed 2, and the McNulty Review, they are lining up to repeat those mistakes on a massive scale.
“We will fight them with every means at our disposal.”
