The Green Party manifesto says privatisation of the railways has failed, and that the railways should be the ‘backbone of a sustainable transport system’.

Its MPs will support investment in a ‘modern, efficient, publicly owned railway, with affordable fares’.

The party is also in favour of ‘more rapid electrification’ and a ‘national strategic approach’ to identifying lines and stations which could be re-opened, with regional and local government taking a leading part in this.

There would be more support for companies with lorries to move away from using internal combustion engines to transporting their goods on freight trains.

Train operators with National Rail contracts would be brought back into public ownership gradually, by allowing their contracts to expire. Rolling stock leasing companies would not be nationalised outright, but replacement rolling stock ordered in the future would no longer be leased from them.

The Party says ‘it’s time to shift the transport system away from cars and roads. Green MPs will push to restore the fuel duty escalator.’

The Greens would also would push for local authority control and proper funding for bus services, increasing these in urban areas, and also ensuring that ‘there is a bus service to every village’.

An additional £19 billion would be spent over five years to improve public transport, and some of this funding would be reallocated from road schemes.

There would be a ban on domestic flights for journeys that would take less than three hours by train.