The train drivers union Aslef is calling on the Government to dump plans to hand the running of South East Trains to a private company.

The union believes the public company which has been operating SET for two years should be left in charge.

"The real challenge would be to make South East Trains a flagship for public enterprise," said Aslef general secretary Keith Norman.

"Not to do so means the government is not only selling its principles, it is letting down its electorate. I call on them to reconsider treading a path that is already proven to be expensive and detrimental to service standards."

The union said that since South East Trains was taken away from private contractors and returned to the public service, it has improved both service and profitability.

Mr Norman said Government plans to sell it off again amount to "the politics of the madhouse and the economics of the asylum". He says it raises serious questions about the Government’s motivations.

Public company South East Trains was set up to replace the privatised Connex South East two years ago tomorrow. The private contractor was removed because of financial irregularities. The company had pocketed over half a billion pounds of public money since it was privatised in 1996.  The service was returned to the public sector.

Since that time the service has improved both in terms of price and punctuality. Services have improved by 9%. A nationwide poll revealed that 72% of the public wanted private rail companies to revert to the public service when franchises end.

The Department for Transport has conceded that it will spend £3.85million to set up arrangements to return the South East Trains franchise to the private sector.

SET will be subsumed into the Integrated Kent Franchise which will also run a new high-speed domestic service on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link from 2009.

Four companies are bidding for the new franchise:

South Eastern Railways Ltd (joint venture between Danish State Railways and Stagecoach Group)

First Kent Integrated Railways (First Group)

Great South Eastern Railway Limited (GNER Holdings and MTR Corporation)

London & South East Railway Ltd (Go Ahead Group and Keolis).

The franchise will last for six years, with an automatic extension of another two years, if a performance-related clause is satisfied.

More information: info at aslef.org.uk