RMT ballots Greater Anglia members

The RMT is to ballot guards and drivers on Greater Anglia over what it calls “the potential extension of Driver Only Operation”, claiming that the company has failed to give a guarantee on the role of the guard throughout the length of the franchise.

The union has insisted that the guard must have full responsibility for the closure of doors and dispatch of trains, including on new rolling stock.

Some 54% of Greater Anglia services currently operate driver- only. The majority of these are outer-suburban commuter trains.

Richard Dean, train service delivery director at Abellio, said: “We have conductors on our intercity service between Norwich and London Liverpool Street, and on our rural routes across East Anglia. We have no plans to remove them. In fact, we have a new conductors training course starting in August.”

RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley said: “It’s clear the Government is imposing on the company the fact that they have to deliver Driver Only Operation. That’s a position we can’t accept, and the drivers’ union ASLEF can’t accept it either. We will not be accepting DOO on Greater Anglia, or anywhere else.”

Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, has tabled a motion in Parliament about possible closure of ticket offices. The motion says: “That this House is concerned at warnings from the rail unions that Greater Anglia wishes to close all but seven of its 74 ticket offices by the end of its franchise.”