Pay dispute settled but still no end to rail chaos
PASSENGERS are being kept in the dark about when Scotland’s rail services will return to normal despite drivers accepting a pay deal.
ScotRail has been urged to act with ‘pace and urgency’ to restore a full timetable and end the disruption for the public and the damaging impact on businesses caused by a reduced timetable.
The nationalised operator slashed services by around 700 a day at the end of May amid a pay dispute with drivers, who refused to work overtime and on their rest days.
Even though the dispute was resolved on Monday when members of the Aslef union accepted a 5 per cent pay offer, ScotRail customer service director David Simpson yesterday admitted he could not say when passengers would see more train services running. He told the
BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme he was hoping to make an announcement later this week ‘about when we can restore the full timetable to Scotland railways’.
Mr Simpson raised the prospect that the timetable might not return to the one in place before the industrial action began seven weeks ago, saying such a return would happen ‘only if we are certain we can do that reliably and robustly’.
ScotRail, which previously suggested it would take ten days to restore the timetable, said it has not had any talks with Aslef to prepare for the timetable being restored.
The delay means that visitors to the Open golf tournament in St Andrews are still being told to avoid travelling by train, with ScotRail also warning there are no replacement buses.
Business groups had expressed alarm about the temporary timetable, which cut the number of trains by a third and axed most late services.
UK Hospitality Scotland director Leon Thompson had warned that the drastically reduced timetable and Network Rail strikes were causing the ‘complete destruction of consumer confidence’, with the night-time economy hit particularly hard and hotels seeing a spike in cancellations.
In response to the deal between Aslef and ScotRail, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce deputy chief executive Charandeep Singh said: ‘The focus must now be on re-introducing and restoring a full timetable of services with pace and urgency.’
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said ‘passengers are still being kept in the dark over when timetables will return to normal’, adding: ‘We have heard nothing from Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth on when we can expect full timetables to resume. People have had enough. Jenny Gilruth and the SNP must now muster the sense of urgency that was so lacking in their negotiations up to now, and finally get our trains back up and running.’
Meanwhile, Network Rail last night offered members of the militant RMT union with a salary below £24,000 the equivalent of a 13 per cent pay rise this year – with ‘no strings attached’ and backdated to January.
The rise would also be matched next year if the RMT accepts modernisation of some working practices. The RPI rate of inflation is 11.7 per cent.
For workers on more than £60,000, the offer would be worth just over 5 per cent this year and next. Network Rail is preparing to cut union barons out of talks and go straight to staff if the deal is rejected by the RMT.
‘Restore the full timetable’