PUTTING aside the character assassination and political spin surrounding Jeremy Corbyn and concentrating on policy.

In re-nationalising the railways perhaps he is onto something?

According to the latest figures released from Virgin Rail Group, operators of the West Coast service, it posted an annual turnover of £1 billion.

Profits for Virgin Rail Group, year ending March 201,5 were up from £13 million to £53.7 million, of which £6 million came from the West Coast service which serves Warrington Bank Quay.

Sir Richard Branson has a 51 per cent stake in Virgin Group while stock market listed travel group Stagecoach has a 49 per cent stake.

The profit generated a £27 million dividend to the two parent companies.

Meanwhile, the state-funded company Network Rail which took over the privatised firm that operated tracks and signals Railtrack in 2002 paid Virgin £37.5 million of taxpayers’ money in these times of austerity in the form of compensation over track maintenance and disruption due to failures caused by Network Rail.

The present system further shows that the super rich are laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of the taxpayer.

So I would suggest our options are to either renationalise the railways or to privatise Network Rail or ensure the track and signal maintenance is part of the train operator franchise package.

TONY FOX

Stockton Heath