Summer of rail strikes loom as 800 services cancelled in week
Passengers face mass disruption as talks remain in deadlock over pay and jobs
SCOTS rail passengers face a summer of severe disruption as rail workers moved closer to a national strike that will target the busiest time of year for tourists and disrupt the Edinburgh festivals.
Passengers have already been severely hit as up to 800 Scotrail services were cancelled in just over a week in the wake of a drivers’ pay dispute which has seen workers unofficially work to rule.
Now the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will ballot its members on strike action over pay and conditions following a meeting yesterday.
Nationalised Scotrail had already offered workers a 2.2 per cent pay increase and no compulsory redundancies for two years.
But the RMT wants a higher wage rise, no compulsory redundancies for five years, no booking office or station closures for two years and hundreds of new apprentices.
Meanwhile, the transport staff union Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has now called for action to avoid a “far reaching” industrial dispute across the network this summer as it considers a potential national strike ballot with its staff working for Network Rail, which owns the rail infrastructure, including tracks and signals.
RMT has already begun a ballot for strike action which it is feared will bring Scottish rail services to a standstill, as safety concerns surface over plans to cut hundreds of critical maintenance jobs.
The unions say Network Rail is planning to cut at least 2,500 safetycritical maintenance jobs as part of a £2 billion reduction in spending, including hundreds north of the Border.
Workers have been subject to pay freezes and changes to their terms and conditions.
TSSA is now in the process of consulting reps over an industrial action ballot amongst its Network Rail members across the UK, including in Scotland.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said many of their members had not seen a pay increase in two years “and with prices rocketing enough is enough”.
He said: “If Network Rail don’t come forward very soon with proposed pay increases, which at least match inflation, a summer of discontent is on the way across our railways.”
It comes as unions raised concerns over the “worst cuts to rail services since the dark days of Beeching”, fearing plans by the newly nationalised Scotrail to cut 30% of services for several months.
The train drivers union Aslef has said if service cuts were implemented, it would represent the biggest cut to Scotland’s rail services since the cuts overseen by Dr Richard Beeching the 1960s.
RMT workers have joined Aslef in looking to ballot Scotrail members on whether they should take industrial action this summer over pay and conditions.
Scotrail has urged trade unions to remain at the negotiating table so they can reach an “agreement that delivers for staff, customers, and the taxpayer”.
They warned that industrial action “risks putting people off travelling by trains” at a time when “we need to do everything we can to get customers back on to the railway and revenue in the door”.
It confirmed that it was looking at how it can deliver “greater timetable certainty and reliability for customers” and will say more in the coming days.
The minister-controlled train operator has blamed a “significant number” of pay disputes on drivers
FINANCE Secretary Kate Forbes yesterday refused to provide any level of confidence over whether the two vessels at the centre of the ferry scandal would see service next year.
The Herald on Sunday revealed that a spiralling catalogue of faults with the vessels under the stewardship of nationalised Ferguson Marine has prompted serious concerns over whether they will ever see service.
A damning internal analysis in March from publicly-owned ferry owner and procurer Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited reveals the number of faults that remain outstanding on the ferries has risen from 166 before nationalisation to 237 in March. Some 65 per cent of them relate to safety, maintainability, or specification requirements.
Ms Forbes repeated a past update that the Glen Sannox and Hull 802, which are still languishing in the shipyard in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, are scheduled to see service for island communities March and May 2023 and between October and December 2023 respectively and that the next update is due at the end of next month.
Both vessels are set to be more than five years late, while costs have soared from £97 million to £250m.
Ms Forbes, the MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, confirmed 119 of the 237 faults were classed as category 1 issues, while the rest were described as “minor snagging”. Of the 119, there were engineering solutions for 83, leaving “36 that are still being worked on”.
In the wake of the fault issues, Scottish Conservative MSP Jamie Greene asked Ms Forbes on a scale of one to 10 how confident she was that Glen Sannox would see service next year. He also asked her if she would put her job on the line if it does not happen. Ms Forbes dodged both questions. She said good progress was being made on resolving the issues with the ships and added: “Can I remind [Mr Greene) that I represent a community that is set to benefit from one of these vessels.
“Solutions are expected progressively without delays or impacts on the programme. Solving all these issues is critically important. It’s part of the programme, and I think we’ve got the best people on the ground to do that, too.”
“Missing” Scottish Government documents that were suddenly found last week disclosed that officials sought Deputy First Minister John Swinney’s approval for the ferries deal to the Jim Mccoll-led Ferguson Marine in 2015 in addition to an original nod of consent of then transport minister Derek Mackay.
Mr Greene responded: “We do have good people, but we don’t have as an answer, no cast iron guarantee and, once again, no one in the SNP is willing to take full responsibility for the delivery of this project or the delivery of those vessels.
“There clearly remains a very real risk, very real risk, that these ferries will not be delivered more than five years after their due date, and the cost is now spiralling to more than a quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money.
“Will the Government today commit to the Deputy First Minister, make an official statement to this parliament, on his role in all of this? And, secondly, will the Government agree to a full public inquiry into their handling of the shambles?” Ms Forbes said the Government had accepted the recommendations in the Audit Scotland report. including one that there should be an in-depth “lessons learnt” inquiry.
She said: “I have been absolutely crystal clear on what I expect from Ferguson Marine in completing the vessels. It was not a document that resulted in delayed construction to the vessels. That is a question of construction.
“And he doesn’t need to believe me on that. He just needs to read the Audit Scotland report on that. It is quite clear that the reason why they are overdue and over budget is a question of construction.
“Internal documents from nationalised shipyard firm Ferguson Marine admitted a serious risk that CMAL may not accept the vessels for the ferry operator Calmac’s lifeline services to Scotland’s island communities.
CMAL, in one document, criticises management systems in place and said the most pressing risk issue was the “failure to completely understand the actual remaining works that must be completed in order to deliver each vessel”.
Mr Swinney has insisted the “right steps” were taken over awarding the controversial contract to Ferguson Marine shipyard.
And he has indicated the SNP may bow to demands for a public inquiry over the ferries scandal as he came under pressure to explain his decision to give “budget approval” to the contract.