The Liberal Democrats are planning to match Labour plans and allow public sector organisations to bid for rail franchises as they come up.
The move will be seen as a significant piece of positioning in case there needs to be a coalition deal between the two parties.
The policy is set out in a document on the Lib Dem website which the party thought they had rendered unreadable so far in advance of next month’s conference.
The documents, which have since been removed from the site, also confirmed that the party could ignore the main plank of the Davies review into airport expansion in London.
It says that the party rules out any expansion of Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick or any new airport in the Thames Estuary, and that it wants to ensure that there will be no net increase in runways across the UK as a whole.
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The news came as it emerged that the Lib Dems want the spring budget in February rather than April or May next year, believing that this will stop the Tories from announcing “surprises”, according to the BBC.
One Tory source said that this would mean it was too close to December’s Autumn statement.