Landslip adds to chaos amid railway strikes
SCOTS face travel chaos as they return to work after the Christmas break because of strikes on the railways and the closure of the West Coast mainline due to a landslip.
Rail workers will embark on another disruptive strike over pay as commuters return.
Those travelling between Scotland and England are also facing additional disruption as the West Coast mainline is set to remain shut until at least Friday because of a landslide caused by last week’s torrential rain.
It badly damaged an embankment near Carstairs, Lanarkshire, forcing the line to be closed to passenger and freight services between Carlisle and Glasgow.
Network Rail had already advised people only to travel ‘if absolutely necessary’ between tomorrow and Saturday because of two 48-hour walkouts by RMT members tomorrow and Wednesday and January 6 and 7.
The latest wave of strikes comes as industry data has shown that 20,000 signallers and track workers represented by the RMT trade union received around £154million in taxpayer-funded bonuses in just over a decade.
The payments were on top of generous salaries, overtime, rest day working and allowances for unsociable hours, with 250 signallers and track maintenance staff earning £100,000 or more.
Tory MP Peter Bone said: ‘These strikes cannot be about people not being able to provide food or using food banks, that’s just nonsense. Most people would regard these rail workers as relatively well-off.
‘Their strikes are politically motivated and the Government needs to look long and hard at new legislation preventing essential services from being able to go on strike.’ Avanti West Coast had already said it would be running no trains on Thursday because of a separate strike by the train drivers’ union Aslef.
Last Friday’s landslip affected a 40 yard stretch of line, and once the debris has been removed the track’s foundations will be reinforced with 200 tons of stone.
Engineers have been working round the clock on the ‘very challenging’ task of rebuilding the supporting embankment, and the track will also need to be relaid.
Checks will have to be carried out on the signalling systems. A Network Rail spokesman said: ‘This is a very challenging project, but we understand the inconvenience closing the line will cause to customers and are working hard to reopen the railway as quickly as we can.’
An Avanti West Coast spokesman said: ‘While our colleagues at Network Rail are working hard to reopen the affected parts of the line damaged by the landslip, our advice to customers is do not travel to and from Scotland on the West Coast Main Line.’
‘Politically motivated’