ONLY Labour’s union “paymasters” want to keep the East Coast rail line in state hands, the Transport Secretary insisted.

Patrick McLoughlin accused Ed Miliband’s party of ignoring “passengers” in campaigning to halt the re-privatisation of the flagship line from the North-East to London.

And he pledged that a new private operator – due to be revealed next month – would bring “faster services, new routes, new trains, growth”.

Mr McLoughlin told activists: “Only Ed Miliband could look at the success of our railways today and say ‘let's go back to some version of state command'.

“Take East Coast trains. Our plan - a new private operator from next year, running more trains to Leeds, faster services to Edinburgh, new routes, new trains, growth.

“His plan - letting the RMT call the shots and leaving that route stuck in state hands. Ed Miliband obeys his paymasters. He doesn't listen to passengers.”

However, polls have repeatedly shown a majority of the public support taking the rail network – not just the East Coast line – into state ownership.

Critics of the re-franchising say profits - currently being reinvested in a better rail network, from a successful state-run line - will now be lost to private shareholders.

And there are fears of a third “franchise fiasco” after both National Express and GNER handed back the East Coast keys, when they ran out of cash.

The three shortlisted bidders are: Inter City Railways Limited (a consortium of Stagecoach and Virgin), First Group and a consortium of French-owned Keolis and Eurostar International.

In the speech, the Transport Secretary described Hitachi’s decision to move the headquarters of their global rail business to Britain as “one of the best phone calls I got in this job”.

And he raised cheers when he said: “We'll set out plans to improve vital congested roads like the A303, the A27 and the A1 in the North.”

However, Mr McLoughlin gave no details of that A1 upgrade, after it was revealed that creating a dual carriageway between Newcastle and Scotland will cost a whopping £600m.

It’s possible that ministers will opt instead for putting in two carriageways on only limited sections of the route, in an announcement due in December.