LABOUR leader Ed Miliband signalled yesterday he was prepared to halt two decades of underfunding and extortionate fare increases on Britain’s railways by bringing them under public ownership. 

He said the party recognised there were “flaws” in the current privatised system and would take a “pragmatic” approach to solving them. 

“I want to see value for money for the taxpayer,” Mr Miliband said on the BBC Andrew Marr show.

“I am never going to write a blank cheque and I am not going back to the past, but we are looking at the different options.”

Mr Miliband was pressed on the subject after 30 Labour candidates in constituencies key to winning next year’s general election urged a “bold” approach to ending Britain’s railway disaster.

They wrote a letter to the Observer which highlighted that the £4 billion taxpayer handout to rail privateers makes up a third of their total income. 

“These profits are even helping keep down rail fares on the continent as many of Britain’s rail services are run by subsidiaries of the state railways of France, Germany and the Netherlands,” it said. 

And the letter highlights how the East Coast Mainline has succeeded under public ownership, hitting performance targets and returning over £1bn to the Treasury. 

Many of the parliamentary hopefuls who signed the letter are fighting for the votes of workers who now spend more on rail season tickets than mortgage repayments or rent. 

Among them was Illford North candidate Wes Streeting. 

He told the Star: “People can see that rail privatisation has been an abject failure, ripping off commuters and costing the taxpayer.”

Mr Streeting is one of a number of candidates who signed the letter considered to be on the right of the Labour Party.

He is clear though that now is the time for public ownership.

Mr Streeting said: “Ed Miliband has been courageous in tackling market failure, whether it’s the energy market or the housing market.” 

“And I think the railways are another area where he can take action. 

“When you look pragmatically at the current situation in the railways, the case for bringing it back into public ownership is overwhelming.” 

The majority of rail franchises expire in the next Parliament and a Labour government could avoid paying compensation to privateers by simply allowing them to lapse. 

The Star revealed last year how Maria Eagle planned to do that before being moved from her position as shadow transport secretary. 

Train drivers’ union Asflef welcomed the hinted consensus that the privatisation of Britain’s railways, forced through Parliament by John Major’s unpopular Tory government in 1984, was a failure.

General secretary Mick Whelan said it had allowed operators to cream off profits without investing in infrastructure, leaving Britain with a “badly fragmented rail network which the taxpayer has to pick up the bill for.”

Acting RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It’s about time Labour woke up to the fact that bringing the railways into public ownership is popular, cost effective and would free up the money we need to invest in staffing and capacity to modernise the network.”

But he added that it had remained “a disgrace that the last Labour government allowed the private profiteering and exploitation on our railways to continue unchecked.”

Green MP Caroline Lucas said Labour MPs should support the Bill she has already laid in the House of Commons for public ownership.