Ministers urged to solve rail strike crisis set to cost UK £1bn
MINISTERS were last night under mounting pressure to solve the rail strikes crisis as analysis showed walkouts will blow a £1 billion hole in the economy by the New Year.
It comes after the militant RMT union threw the Christmas plans of millions into chaos this week by calling eight days of strikes in December and January.
Campaigners have urged ministers to get a grip of the crisis in the interests of long-suffering passengers, who they said have had a ‘raw deal’ for too long.
UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper will today hold crunch talks with RMT boss Mick Lynch in a bid to find a breakthrough. Sources said last night that a deal with train operators was edging closer.
It came as the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) found that the hit to the UK economy from the walkouts will have reached £691million by January. Many of the losses relate to staff absences, such as retail or hospitality employees unable to make it to work.
Meanwhile, the rail sector estimates lost fare revenue will have exceeded £320million by January 2023, bringing the total hit to the economy and the rail industry to more than £1billion since strikes began in June.
Hospitality chiefs have warned they face losing millions of pounds if the strikes around Christmas go ahead.
They say the walkouts could be the final nail in the coffin for some firms after losing out on the last two festive periods due to the pandemic. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: ‘We urge ministers to intervene to avoid substantive economic damage to our high street hospitality firms.’
The RMT has staged eight national walkouts since June and will orchestrate another eight over December and January. There will be four 48-hour strikes between December 13 and January 7, forcing many revellers to cancel parties and shoppers to stay at home.
The strike action will see more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail and 14 train operators walk out for 48 hours on December 13 and 14. They will do so again a few days later on December 16 and 17, and then on January 3 and 4 and January 6 and 7. Key dates such as Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and Hogmanay will also be hit because of a ban on overtime working from December 18 to January 2. Several operators rely on overtime working to run a full timetable.
ScotRail staff are not involved directly but the action will have a major impact, meaning a very limited number of ScotRail services will run. The RMT is the largest of the rail unions and organises more than 10,000 members in Scotland.
Avanti West Coast, which runs services between Glasgow and London Euston, and LNER, which runs trains between Edinburgh and London, will also be affected, as will the TransPennine Express and the Caledonian Sleeper services between Scotland and England.
The Department for Transport urged union leaders and employers to ‘come to an agreement which is fair for passengers, taxpayers and workers’.
‘Avoid economic damage’