It is time for newscast. Alex, if i had to describe newscast, i would say it is a visualised podcast which means it is a podcast, its a radio programme, and its a tv show. Our Subject Material is what is going on At Westminster and beyond. Its a podcast tv radio show, fine. As long as there is interesting news chat. No silly gimmicks or pop culture references. Today i think i will give my long awaited verdict on the taylor swift album really, nobody wants to hear you talking about that, 0k . Just move on. I am sure everyone will be waiting with bated breath, adam. Other stuff we have got in there, back to the politics of course, we have got louise haigh, the shadow transport secretary, who is doing this big announcement about what labour would do with the railways, so that is going to be pretty big, we will talk about that. Ok, so presumably it is alljust serious then, no silly gimmicks . And no comedians on the show . And then we will be lightening the mood because Michael Spicer, the guy who became famous for those other room videos and who now has his own podcast on bbc sounds and radio 4 is going to be in this room right. Its the room next door, not the other room. Laughter. Anyway, what could possibly go wrong on this episode of newscast . hello, it is adam in the studio. Hello, it is alex in the studio. You can tell there is an election in the air because the party leaders, in this case today, keir starmer of labour, are doing kind of big Flagship Policies that sort of have a feeling of boldness around them. They are also, as they say in the trade, really retail, you can, sort of, relate to your own life. And in this case, it was labours plans for the railways. Yeah, big announcement and you also know there is an election in the air because they are off around the country Somewhere Making said big announcements. In places where they might need to win seats. In places where they might need to win seats, yes. That is exactly what keir starmer has been doing today and he has been talking about what labour would do with the railways and that is effectively, over a period of time, bring them back into public control. Labour says that would make them run a whole lot better. And there wouldnt be a big bang where suddenly british rail back it would be that as the existing Rail Franchises which are run by commercial operations come to an end, they would be taken over by a publicly owned company or the department for transport, essentially the government. And labour are saying that would take about five years, to bring all of those existing franchises back under public control. They are talking about the impact that would have on reliability and general railway service. Although there is a bit of, i was going to say a plot twist but im trying to come up with a Railway Version of that. I dont know, a leaf on the line . A leaf on labours line is that terrible . It is the usual quality of newscast. Lets put it that way the leaf on the line for labour when it comes to this is that the government is actually doing a sort of version of this already. To give us his analysis, here is chris mason who was with keir starmer in the North East Of England today. Hello, newscasters, from Newton Aycliffe in county durham, the home of hitachis train factory. You know what . This is the week where i really think politics has notched up, yet again. We had three days in a row with News Conferences from the Prime Minister. Monday in london on rwanda. Tuesday on defence in warsaw. Wednesday, also on defence and various other things in berlin. Here i am in the North East Of England, having been talking to keir starmer, the labour leader, about their ideas. So we have had defence from the Prime Minister and then transport from labour today and this idea of the railways pretty much going back into Public Ownership. Not entirely but pretty much. Quite a chunky policy idea from labour and also one they think will matter to millions of people if they can prove and convince people it would actually make a difference when you are buying a ticket or trying to get from a to b on the trains. The local elections and mayoral elections and police and crime commissioner elections in england and wales are just a week away, and that explains some of the notching up of politics. And the general election as well, imminent now, whenver it comes. When will it come . Well, we dont quite know, but politics is certainly reflecting the fact that Polling Stations are getting closer. So, that was chris giving his analysis of the situation whilst sitting on a salt grit bin. To expand on some of those things we have been speaking to louise haigh who is labours shadow transport secretary and she is just sitting on a normal chair. Louise, hello. Hello, hello. So, give us your vision, if there is a labour government, its a few years hence, Great British railways is up and running, why will the rail network be so much better and how will it feel as a passenger . Well, our reforms are based on the fact that the Current System is not working at all. It doesnt work because it doesnt work in the interest of the passenger. Thats why we set out a detailed plan today that will reform the railways top to bottom so they are incentivised exclusively to work in the interest of passengers. We are abolishing network rail, we will establish Great British railways and bring all the private operators into Public Ownership. That means we bring together decisions around track and train. That means that when we invest hard pressed taxpayers money into our railways, it will deliver improvements for passengers. At the moment, we have a crazy situation where billions of pounds can be spent, for example, 4 billion was recently spent on the East Coast Main Line upgrade but because those decisions are made separately from operations, its had absolutely no impact on Passenger Service whatsoever. So, having a publicly owned and publicly controlled network will improve reliability, improve performance, improve the implications of Infrastructure Spending and we will be able to hold Great British railways to account on behalf of the passenger to drive up Customer Service levels, as well. Louise, hi, it is alex here, i guess what a lot of people want to know is if it will make the tickets any cheaper. Unfortunately, i cannot today promise to cut fares today, they are incredibly complex and based in regulation that needs reform. And it would be completely insincere if i, in opposition, i started saying that chippenham to woking will now cost £3 less. What we can commit to is a simplification of the fare system because one of the biggest thing that keeps passengers off the railway is theyjust dont trust they are not being fleeced. We have a situation the moment where, for example, sheffield to manchester will cost one price but if you buy that journey broken down, sheffield to buxton and buxton to manchester, then it will cost less. People just feel they are being fleeced. I get that already when i go on trainline to buy a ticket and asked if i want to split save and it buys me two tickets so that happens already. Exactly, if you buy through trainline but not everybody does do that, if you buy direct from an operator or try to navigate different systems, there is every chance your bling fleeced in the Current System. We will deliver a best fare guarantee, just like people experience with Transport For London or, indeed, if they buy through trainline. You know, there is a reason i announced these reforms at trainline this morning because they are a really good example of the private sector in the railways thats trying to innovate and do the right thing by passengers but has been completely frustrated by the broken system. They have developed digital season tickets but theyve only been able to negotiate them with certain operators. For 70 of the network, theyre not available, despite the Secretary Of State for transport stepping in and asking operators to introduce them, thats because the system is so dysfunctional, whereas we would task Great British railways with working with innovators like trainline to make sure that where they have things that are better for the passenger, they can be rolled across the network speedily and available for all passengers. The government has already said they will set up Great British railways and there is a thing called the Great British railways transition group, which is already setting up their version of Great British railways there. Is your version going to be different . Fundamentally different. First of all, the tories recognised that reform was necessary five years ago and they have made basically no progress since. They have not passed the legislation that is needed, they spent hundreds of millions of pounds on talking about it and since that time there has been no progress and, in fact, there has been decline on major areas of the network. Our Great British railways, obviously, is fundamentally different because it will cover the Public Ownership and operation as well, completely reducing the fragmentation and waste that plagues the Current System and would plague the tories version, as well. But the Great BritishRailways Transition Team you mentioned sits within network rail and this is a really important differentiation because network rail is the infrastructure operator. And it doesnt deliver at the moment, its performance is not as good as it should be and it has a culture that is very engineer led which is exactly the kind of culture that plagued british rail, as well. That is why we want our Great British railways and out railways to be fundamentally different, to be working Single Mindedly On behalf of the passenger so we are abolishing network rail and establishing the new body that would take over those functions but be led by people who are exclusively focused on passenger outcomes. Louise, i was interested in the document you published today about improving passenger experience, things like making sure the toilets are cleaner and the wi fi works. What is your theory about why train wi fi is so rubbish . Because if you want to fix it, you must have a theory about why its so bad there is a number of reasons. It is partly because the system is not incentivised to deliver for Customer Experience and thats why we talked about those things. So, i get the train twice a week between sheffield and london and theres no wi fi or phone reception on that whole journey. Part of the reason, if you can believe it, is the film on the windows repels some of the signal and makes it more difficult is that true . No way you love trains too i always thought part of the reason that the wi fi was so sketchy was just because if you went on a train real quick, itjumps from Wi Fi Supplier to a Wi Fi Supplier its just the windows are too dark is that how it works . On some operators and in some parts of the country, there is an issue with broadband and 5g generally across the country but some operators it is excellent, on lner its really consistent, northern is consistent and is a particular issue with the way the trains have been procured on certain lines. Let me ask you one thing, obviously, this is one of the things that has stayed in the labour plans, this idea to bring the railways back under public control, whereas a lot of other stuff, that to be fair keir starmer said when he was going to be leader of the body would do, a lot of it has been ditched already. Did you have to fight for this in the Shadow Cabinet . Did you have to say, i definitely want to keep this. Did you face any opposition from your colleagues . As we develop policy, there is always robust challenge and discussion and there has been an awful lot of work, and as you can imagine, Industry Engagement as we developed these plans and of course there has been opposition from people within industry as well and lobbying from outside the party so we have had to make sure they are really credible and sensible and im delighted that today it has led the news as captured peoples imaginations and people are really excited about it. It is a popular policy, but its importantly within our fiscal rules. You will know them very well, Rachel Reeves has articulated them, as has every member of the Labour Front Bench many times but they are within our fiscal rules and it means we can take the contracts back as they expire so we will not have to pay any money in compensation and, as we set out, we actually think we can deliver significant savings to the taxpayer because of the model is so inefficient. Whereas in other sectors like water, where i know people are really anxious and keen for us to nationalise, it would cost the taxpayer billions and billions of pounds and when resources are so scarce at the moment, we think the better and more pragmatic thing to do very quickly is to bring in legislation and regulation of the Water Companies and criminal sanctions of directors that allow dumping of sewage into the waters so i think all of these demonstrate that where the settlement is failing we are prepared to take bold action but we have the do it in a way that is credible and respectful of taxpayers money. You talk about people providing challenge and disagreeing, one of those people is current transport secretary mark harper. Here is what he said about your plans. It is an unfunded plan they have got, they have no idea how to pay for it. And also, the other thing i think istheres nothing i in it that will improve i services for passengers. The other thing people need to understand is what the damage that will be done by Angela Rayners i plan to reverse all our trade unionl legislation, youre going to go back i to french style wildcat strikes i with no notice. Let me ask you. He was talking about the unions, one of the big problems in the railways at the moment is the ongoing industrial action so do you have a plan to sort it out . I mean, what a cheek of mark harper to talk about encouraging industrial action when were into the second year of the First National strike on our railways in over 30 years. These have been deliberately provoked by Tory Transport Secretaries starting from grant shapps this is notjust me saying that but Rail Industry sources and employers that have said it as well. It might sound basic but unfortunately it has not been basic because the current tory transport secretary, mark harper, has not sat down with the unions in more than 18 months. He has not been round the negotiating table. He has not shifted the mandate for the operators. He has actually, we think, told the Rail Delivery Group that negotiates with the unions not to negotiate any further either. So he has been deliberately provoking this, prolonging this, because he thinks its a good excuse because the trains arent running on time and its a good distraction from his failures. So it would be my First Priority to resolve this dispute and get round the table. And i think we could find a compromise. It wouldnt necessarily mean an increased pay deal because there are other conditions and reforms on the table, and im confident that we could find it. Just as labour run wales did, they avoided any Strike Action on their railways, they found a compromise that didnt break the bank and included some workplace modernisation. But they did it in social partnership and not in the antagonistic way that this government has repeatedly treated working people. In that clip there, mark harper mentioned Angela Rayner, labours deputy leader. She stood in for keir starmer at Prime Ministers questions this week and she described rishi sunak as a pint sized loser. Are we really in a place where its ok to take the mickey out of someones height now . Ithink, you know, Angela Rayner has been called many, many things herself by the conservatives. Yeah, which is bad, but that doesnt mean its right for her to do it. Im sure she could have thought of much worse. Look, it was a light hearted jibe and im sure rishi doesnt take it particularly personally. I think it is the cut and thrust of Prime Ministers questions and i think she really held her own in the face of some pretty full on attacks from the tories herself. The last one for me, and its a bit of a curveball. A clip has gone viral in the last few days of your colleague, darrenjones, shadow chief secretary to the treasury, on a Radio Station panel show where he doesnt know the answer to a question. Instead of blagging it, h