YESTERDAY the coalition government’s forced five-year experimentation with publicly run public transport ended, as Virgin Trains and Stagecoach took over the operation of the East Coast Main Line (ECML).

This is in spite of uniform opposition from unions, campaigning organisations and passenger advocacy groups and the fact that the East Coast line consistently beats its privatised counterparts in terms of efficiency and passenger satisfaction.

For a government that claims its sole concern is with reducing the deficit, it seems a strange decision to end a relationship that’s pumped nearly £1 billion back into the Treasury over the last five years.

It flies in the face of all supposed common sense that when presented with such an obvious example of the benefits of state-run public services, the Tories and Lib Dems would press ahead regardless.

There are few starker examples that the interests of monopoly capital have become entrenched in all aspects and facets of the state and the slavish commitment of their representatives in Parliament to the mantra of “public bad, private good.”

Even though British public-sector operators are prevented from bidding for franchises, EU-enforced competition laws allows public bodies from other EU states to. The French RATP was actually one of the frontrunners to take over the ECML and already owns and operates eight British bus subsidiaries operating in London, Manchester, Bath and Bournemouth.

Arriva, one of the most significant British bus, rail, tram, coach and water taxi operators, is a subsidiary of German state rail company Deutsche Bahn.

The situation is so starkly ridiculous that it has even managed to wake up the Labour front bench from their usual slumber, with shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher going as far as to call it an “ideological sell-off.”

Of course this was immediately followed up with a policy commitment that was as timid and ideologically compromised as we’ve come to expect — merely allowing British-based public-sector operators to bid alongside private companies for franchises.

Any attempt to tackle our chaotic and antiquated transport system has to factor in the role of the EU. The privatisation and break-up of British Rail wasn’t just conceived and executed in Westminster but was used as a model to foist rail privatisation on the rest of Europe.

Council of Ministers directive 91/440 “requires member states to grant the rail companies independence from government and introduce commercial management techniques; and to separate the management of infrastructure from transport management.”

Fortunately for most people on the continent the disastrous example of rail privatisation and franchising in Britain necessitated the adoption of different strategies. But the commitment to running rail for profit is something that is in the very bones of the EU.

Our vision of a publicly run, democratically controlled, integrated, modern transport system which will create secure, well paid, skilled jobs — in manufacturing and engineering sectors as well — is impossible to implement without challenging the EU.

It’s an uphill battle for the left to popularise ownership models that serve the interests of working people rather than those of monopoly capital.

Fortunately poll after poll demonstrates that despite the ideological onslaught carried out by the mass media and neoliberal politicians over the last 20 years, there’s an overwhelming majority in favour of rail being run by the state — even most Tory voters back it.

This issue cuts right to the heart of the question of the role of the state and in whose interests it operates. The gap between the views of the population and the debate in Parliament demonstrates that it isn’t enough just to win popular support for an idea. We need to fight and struggle tooth and nail to make it a reality.

As we’re gearing up this week to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ending of the 1984-85 miner’s strike, the labour movement would do well to remember the immortal Joe Hill’s words: “Don’t mourn, organise.”