Which to some degree ignores the fact that Labour continued implementing Beeching and merrily closed lines after taking power in 1964, including such routes as the Somerset & Dorset, Great Central London extension, and most outrageously the entire Waverley route, some of which has since been rebuilt at huge expense. And, remind me please, under which party was the already-started Channel Tunnel cancelled, and under which party was it constructed ?
IMHO the Tories have been prepared to support the railway where justified (think of the amount of electrification carried out in the 80s and 90s) but not to write a blank cheque for them, forever. Which is not to say that their conduct in the present disputes is helping the situation, at all, but then neither are the politically-motivated aims of the RMT's Executive.