“We need the union barons to sit down with Network Rail and the train companies and get on with it,” he said. “We need, I’m afraid, everybody, and I say this to the country as a whole, we need to get ready to stay the course. “To stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public, they will help to cut costs for farepayers up and down the country.” He insisted a modernisation programme is also in the interests of workers because “if we don’t do this, these great companies, this great industry, will face further financial pressure, it will go bust and the result will be they have to hike up the cost of tickets still further”. That would result in the “disaster” of declining rail use, he warned.
