Groundhog Day! More misery amid strike fallout
COMMUTERS continued to suffer travel misery yesterday due to the fallout from strikes on the railways – and more pain is on the way.
Hundreds of services were cut from already battered routes across Scotland as operators struggled to cope.
Striking workers had left platforms deserted on Tuesday in the biggest walk-out on the railways for 30 years.
Approximately 40,000 Network Rail staff walked out at midnight in a dispute over pay, conditions and redundancies after last-ditch talks with the RMT union collapsed.
The action is set to continue today, with 90 per cent of ScotRail trains cancelled.
Only five routes in the entire country are due to operate, on limited hours, from 7.30am until 6.30pm.
But although there was no strike action yesterday, train services across the country saw severe disruption.
ScotRail said it had to slash 264 more services yesterday due to the knock-on effect of Tuesday’s strike.
The nationalised operator’s temporary timetable usually has 1,576 services per day – but yesterday it ran only 1,312, a reduction of 17 per cent.
ScotRail said this was due to the reopening of Network Rail signal boxes at different times during the day.
Signal boxes in the Central Belt were operating from early yesterday morning – but this was not the case elsewhere.
The first service from Dundee to Aberdeen normally departs at 7.22am but was pushed back to 11.18am due to the strike.
David Simpson, ScotRail’s service delivery director, said: ‘Regrettably, the disruption caused by the RMT Network Rail strike action extends to the days following strike action as well.
‘This is due to Network Rail signal boxes across Scotland’s Railway opening at different times throughout the day. This means, for some routes, that it may be later in the day before we are able to operate services as normal.’
Mr Simpson said he would encourage anyone planning to travel on the railway tomorrow and on Sunday ‘to check their journey in advance to see if their train is running, and on days of strike action to only travel if they really need to on the five routes where services are operating’.
Yesterday in Glasgow, some shop workers were sympathetic to striking rail staff despite the prospect of losing footfall.
Refill Station employee Lindsay Aylees, 45, said: ‘The streets are absolutely empty. It was a hassle for us to get to work as well because the trains are off.
‘If the strike continues, we will see a big change, definitely – it is going to cause a problem. I understand the strikes but I find it annoying because it will have knock-on effects for everything.’
News 24 shop employee Waqar Ahmed, 38, was worried about the future of his business after noticing a drastic drop in footfall. Mr Ahmed said: ‘Today we lost so much business. Normally we have ten to 15 customers at a time in the shop, but today we are dead. They have a right to strike but unfortunately it will affect us.’
Scottish Labour transport spokesman Neil Bibby said: ‘Our railways ground to a halt because of Tory grandstanding and misrule, and now we are facing more of the same.
‘Instead of looking out for passengers and delivering a fair deal for workers, the Tories chose to plunge our railways into chaos.
‘The Tories need to stop playing political games with essential transport links and get round the table to resolve this dispute before the public face any more disruption.’
But Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said the country was being held to ransom by the striking staff.
Last night he said: ‘These strikes are set to bring the UK to a virtual standstill on three
‘Today we lost so much business’
days this week, and have caused chaos since Tuesday.
‘Ordinary travellers have been unable to get to work or make essential journeys, businesses will have suffered as their customers stayed at home – and our tourism industry has been dealt another cruel blow just as we head into the peak summer season.
‘RMT is holding the country to ransom with these irresponsible strikes. Talks are resuming tomorrow, and the union must come to the table ready to thrash out a solution and end this disruption.
‘Until they do, it is small businesses and ordinary passengers who will suffer as a result of this selfish action.’
A Network Rail Scotland spokesman said: ‘We’re serious about trying to find a solution and work out a compromise that gives our people a decent pay rise, but it has to be affordable for taxpayers and farepayers.
‘We understand the impact this strike will have across Scotland and we are working hard to run as many trains as possible on strike days and to keep as many people moving as we possibly can.
‘Our industry has been deeply affected by the pandemic, with passenger numbers still at only 75 per cent of pre-Covid levels, and we must modernise to put our railway on a sound financial footing for the future.’ The Scottish Government said the dispute ‘is a matter for the RMT union and the relevant employers’, adding: ‘We would of course encourage all parties to engage in meaningful dialogue to ensure a satisfactory agreement can be reached for the benefit of passengers and staff alike.
‘This is particularly important given the current cost of living crisis. It is important to highlight that this dispute does not involve ScotRail staff, and there should be no conflation of this GB-wide dispute with pay negotiations for ScotRail staff, which are a separate matter.
Government agency Transport Scotland said: ‘We do expect that some of the normal rail traffic will be displaced onto the roads.’
‘We must modernise’