Strike spreads
RMT members take action at Great Anglia, Northern, Merseyrail and Southern, with South Western Railway next to be afected.
RMT members at four train operating companies went on strike on October 3, and were due to strike again on October 5 (after this issue of RAIL went to press).
Disputes at Northern, Merseyrail and Southern have been joined by Greater Anglia staff.
On the morning of the strikes, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT members are standing absolutely rock solid and united this morning in these four separate disputes, as they make the case for safe, secure and accessible rail services for all. The public and workplace support right across the country for our train guards is nothing short of fantastic as we mount picketing operations at all key locations.
“These strikes are about safety. They are about putting the safety and security of the travelling public before the profits of private companies, profits that in the most part are shipped overseas to subsidise transport services in Europe. That is a national scandal. “RMT will not stand back while the guards - frontline staff when it comes to safety, security and access - are thrown off Britain’s trains for political and financial reasons.”
On GA, duties were covered by managers trained in the conductor role, whom the RMT had branded as “scabs” the week before. This meant GA was able to operate its timetable as planned, and its Public Performance Measure was in the mid-80% range, let down by infrastructure failures.
However, RMT has written to the Office of Rail and Road regarding two incidents that took place on the first day.
It claims that on the 0510 Norwich-Sheringham, the Person Utilised as a Guard (PUG) gave two bells for the train to leave Cromer station, despite the signal being at red. RMT said it was only because the driver noticed the error that the train did not pass the signal.
The second incident was on the 0615 Colchester-Ipswich, where RMT said the driver became aware that the PUG did not know where the door key switch was.
Cash said: “A train passing a red signal or carrying passengers where staff do not even have basic knowledge of train door mechanisms could both have had potentially catastrophic consequences.
“These are only the incidents we are aware of so far, and we have deep concerns that Greater Anglia are playing fast and loose with passenger safety.”
GA Train Service Delivery Director Richard Dean said: “Customer safety was not compromised in these incidents. Correct safety procedures were applied to ensure this was the case. These sorts of incidents occasionally happen with our usual conductors. They will be fully investigated in the usual way. “Our stand-in conductors have been fully trained and had to pass competency, safety and medical tests. It is worth noting that such incidents would be avoided completely with our proposals to move to a system where the driver opens and closes the doors at every station.”
Elsewhere, Northern said it was aiming to run 1,200 trains, although (as on other strike days) the service wound down after 1900.
Rail Delivery Group Chief Executive Paul Plummer said of the strikes: “Right now, rail companies are working together to upgrade the railway to better connect communities and support our economy now and for the long term, including 6,400 more services a week by 2021.
“Train operators are doing all they can to keep vital services running because jobs, businesses and passengers deserve and need a long-term investment and improvement plan, not short-term opportunistic strikes by the RMT leadership intent on dragging the country backwards.”
Southern’s plan over the two days was to operate a normal service on most of its routes, with a limited service on the West London Line and a number of services on the Coastway not running. Some peak-hour trains between Ashford International and Hastings were cancelled, as were the four trains per day between Leatherhead and Guildford.
Passenger Services Director Angie Doll said: “The RMT is striking about changes we made almost a year ago as part of our modernisation programme. Nobody has lost their job over this - in fact, we employ more on-board staff to help passengers than we did before, and we are providing a better service with fewer cancelled trains.
“We are operating on the busiest part of the network, so it’s essential that we use modern technology to keep trains running for the benefit of our passengers - not cancel them as the RMT insists.
“We’ve spent 18 months negotiating with the RMT and met for 25 days. We’ve made four good offers to resolve this dispute, yet the RMT has rejected them all without even putting them to their members for a vote.” These were the RMT’s 35th and 36th days of action on Southern.
GTR said Southern and Gatwick
Express run over 2,200 services on a non-RMT strike day, and that most services would operate to the normal timetable. Gatwick Express was planning a full service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport/Brighton, while Thameslink was also due to run a full service between London Blackfriars/ London Bridge and Brighton.
Southern said RMT has not formally responded to an offer made on May 16, formulated after talks with Cash and his team, which the operator said includes guarantees on job security, guarantees on staffing ratios, guarantees on rostering of On-board Supervisors, and offers enhanced training for new and existing staff.
Southern claimed the RMT’s dispute has also shifted over time with “many inconsistencies”, including that it “worked with GTR’s predecessors to remove on-board staff from Gatwick Express trains”, and that “in March 2016, they stated that their ballot for industrial action was about the extension of DOO (Southern’s plans have been implemented); the introduction of the OBS role (now in place since January 2); and that Southern would make 300 conductors redundant (no one was made redundant).”