Grayrigg crash cited as TUC fears workforce reform a threat to rail safety

The lessons of the 2007 Grayrigg rail crash are being ignored in Network Rail's plans for workforce reform, a trade unionist has suggested.

At the Trades Union Congress in Brighton, delegates voted to support ASLEF's Invest in Rail campaign, which makes the case for reversing cuts to HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

ASLEF executive member Marz Colombini said: “Making the most of the rail industry is also vital to tackling the climate emergency.”

TSSA delegate Sarah-Jane McDonough said: “We know that the safety inspections carried out by maintenance workers keep us, our families, friends and customers safe while travelling on the railway.”

She invoked the example of Grayrigg, where a LondonGlasgow Virgin West Coast Pendolino derailed on a set of faulty points and a passenger was killed. Network Rail was prosecuted under health and safety laws and fined £4.1 million for maintenance failures.

NR now believes the deficiencies would not have been missed if current technology, such as passenger train-borne track inspection kit, had been in use at the time.

“The derailment was caused by a faulty set of points,” added McDonough.

“Now, in 2022, Network Rail wants to cut down on safety inspections, in order to cut back on the number of staff keeping you safe on your journey.”

A spokesman for Network Rail said: “We have the safest major railway in Europe and would never consider any changes that make the railway, our workers or our passengers less safe.

“Modernisation is about improving safety - for example, through accelerating the introduction of technology, and running the railway more efficiently by introducing multi-skilled and multi-functional teams to ensure railway maintenance is done at the right time, by the right number of staff with the right skills.”