RAILWAY workers who turned around East Coast committed yesterday at TSSA conference to keep the line in public hands.

Nicola Jukes of Yorkshire Number 1 branch explained how staff transformed East Coast’s performance after National Express pulled out of the franchise.

“Customer satisfaction is up, revenues are up,” said Ms Jukes.

Delegates heard how the sight of a publicly owned railway working better than those run by privateers is viewed as a dangerous precedent by Tory ministers, who are rushing to privatise East Coast before the next election.

Ms Jukes said it was proof that those campaigning for the renationalisation of the railways had been right all along.

Tim Barclay of Yorkshire Retired spoke about how many of the private rail operators are actually owned by foreign governments.

He added how it was perverse that the “only successful British rail line is being excluded from bidding to please its customers.”