Rail staff face abuse over timetable chaos
Workers facing verbal abuse amid chaos of Northern cancellations
TRANSPORT: Rail staff have faced verbal abuse from passengers angry at delays and cancellations to services because of a change to timetables this week, says a union.
Front-line staff had been taking the “full force” of frustration caused by disruption to Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) trains.
RAIL staff have faced verbal abuse from passengers angry at delays and cancellations to services because of a huge change to timetables this week, according to their union.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said front-line staff had been taking the “full force” of frustration caused by disruption to Northern and Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) trains.
The union said it had received numerous reports of staff being verbally abused, especially when services had been cancelled as operators attempt to introduce new timetables.
Hundreds of services have been cancelled by operator Northern, as well as many passengers suffering delays and overcrowding, since departure times were rescheduled on Sunday, with the “significant operational challenge” of introducing 1,300 services a week blamed.
Amid furious debate over who was to blame for the fiasco, MPs were told in the Commons that they were a result of Northern being forced to scrap its existing timetable plans and come up with new plans for services in January, four months before the changes came into force.
This was as a result of Network Rail, which is responsible for the nation’s rail infrastructure, failing to complete a vital electrification programme from Manchester to Preston via Bolton in time for the May changes.
In a joint statement yesterday, Network Rail and Northern announced that they would be commissioning an independent report and recommendations into the events leading up to the introduction of new timetables.
They said the timetable change, described as the biggest in decades, was designed to boost capacity with better trains and more services in the long term, but admitted: “More immediately it has not delivered an acceptable service for customers.”
Martin Frobisher, managing director for Network Rail’s London North Western route, said: “The independent report will ensure lessons are learned and that there are no repeats of current problems as we prepare for the next major timetable change in December this year.”
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The vast majority of passengers know that the ongoing timetable problems in the wake of ‘Meltdown Monday’ are down to the train companies and not the staff, but some lash out from sheer frustration.
“There is no excuse for that whatsoever and the union will not tolerate a situation where our members at the sharp end are effectively being deployed as human shields by a remote and incompetent management.
“This week’s disastrous new timetable roll-out just further proves that GTR and Northern are not fit to run a railway and need to be taken out of the hands of the profiteers and be brought under public control.”
After workers walked out yesterday, the second day of industrial action will take place today across the region. York Racecourse’s first weekend meeting of the season is likely to be among the events affected. Northern said most trains would run between 7am and 5pm but that the number of services would be reduced, meaning trains and replacement buses were likely to be “extremely busy”.
In a Commons debate on Thursday, MPs in areas affected by the rail chaos called for answers from the Government.
William Wragg, a Conservative whose Hazel Grove constituency sits in Stockport district, a few miles from the Peak District, said the delays to the electrification work “had a knock-on effect on Northern’s ability to run its timetable properly”.
He added: “Sadly, the view I hear from residents is that they have the impression that Northern, the Department for Transport and Network Rail do not care about passengers.
“There is extreme anger. The two words that have appeared most often in the dozens of letters and emails I have received on the subject have been ‘ridiculous’ and ‘unacceptable’, and I must agree.
“I know that the Government are working hard to rebalance the economy and to support Northern cities such as Manchester and the conurbation through the Northern Powerhouse strategy.
“Getting commuter train timetables right is essential for that. The impact of poorer services – cancelled trains, uneven timetables, less available rolling stock and overcrowding – will spill out from the rail network and on to our roads. Northern Rail is placing the blame for this sorry situation on Network Rail.
“As Network Rail comes under the control of the Department for Transport, I am looking to the Government at least to bang heads together and hold these organisations to account.”
Many of the problems have been in the North-West, but Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones, himself a former junior Minister in the Department for Transport, pointed out that his constituents using the Leeds-Harrogate-York line had also been affected.