Fury of travellers as strikes now off but trains WON’T run
Rail bosses insist they can’t resume normal service
UNION barons last night called off a fresh round of national train strikes due to start today – only for rail bosses to claim they didn’t have enough time to reinstate services.
Passengers and MPs were furious as Network Rail said it would be Wednesday before a full normal timetable resumed, with critics saying the delay was ‘not acceptable’.
The RMT suspended three 24hour strikes scheduled for the next five days after claiming train operating firms were prepared to make a pay offer for the first time. The union said it would now enter ‘a period of intensive negoable tiations’ with Network Rail and the rail companies.
But train operators said the early evening announcement left too little time to rota extra staff on to threadbare timetables agreed for today and Monday.
Network Rail, which employs signalling workers, said the same ‘severely limited’ service would run today as would have been the case if staff had walked out.
Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said services would also be compromised on Monday, with train operators reliant on drivers and crews volunteering to boost services already scheduled on the strike timetable. The knock-on effects of the strike timetable would last until around 8am on Tuesday.
Greg Smith, Conservative MP for Buckingham and a member of the Commons transport committee, said there was an argument that rail companies should be to compel employees to return to work once strikes are called off, even at late notice.
‘Unions can’t just march their staff up to the top of the hill and then announce that they are no longer striking, when effectively their members remain on strike with a strike timetable remaining in effect,’ he added.
Former Cabinet minister David Jones said last night: ‘Passengers will expect the trains to run now and for the companies to say it’s too late is not acceptable.
‘Lots of people who breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the strikes were called off are now finding the train companies are still saying they can’t travel. They should get their act together and make sure a full service is restored as soon as possible. It is pathetic.’ He added: ‘It does look a cynical move on the unions’ part to call the strikes off at the last minute.’
Tory MP Mark Jenkinson, who had been due to get the train to Westminster from his Workington constituency on Monday, said: ‘The train companies should have been prepared for this, because we know the unions do these things at the last minute.
‘It’s now had the impact that the unions wanted it to have and I don’t think this will curry any favour with customers.’
In a letter to its members in Network Rail, the RMT said its decision to suspend the strikes in part also came after the Government-funded body ‘made a Uturn in respect of the demand’ that proposals around the modernisation of working practices must all be accepted.
A rail industry source suggested the union was changing tack amid fears it could lose its mandate for continuing strike action in the current re-ballot of members – which it is required to do six months into the dispute – and in a worsening economic climate.
Another said: ‘ The RMT’s announcement is a positive step, but it is of little help to passengers who could have travelled if it had been made sooner.’
Yesterday’s announcement was the first time the RMT has suspended strikes since the first walkouts were imposed in June.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘We have always wanted to secure a negotiated settlement and that is what we will continue to push for in this next phase of intensive talks.’
It is understood Network Rail has agreed to pause the unilateral introduction of maintenance reforms for a month in an effort to try to reach agreement.
Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s chief negotiator, welcomed the suspension of the strike but said the ‘very late notice’ meant services would ‘remain extremely limited’ for the next few days.
‘They should get their act together’