Overtime ban blamed for rail ‘carnage’
Tories will find they have more in common than the division tearing them apart, writes Brian Monteith
Rail routes across the country were affected by “train crew shortages” yesterday, one of the busiest weekends of the year, with more than 40 services ditched. Operator Scotrail insisted cancellations were a result of training staff ahead of a new timetable.
However, members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union told members not to volunteer for overtime or work on “rest days” to protest that conductors and other staff are paid less than drivers for working on days off.
Union leaders say an overtime ban has brought “absolute carnage” to Scotland’s railway network after dozens of services were axed on one of the busiest weekends of the year.
Operator Scotrail was forced to apologise to passengers after cancelling dozens of services two months after it was warned that trains would “come to a grinding halt” if it failed to resolve a long-standing dispute.
Routes across the country were affected by “train crew shortages” with more than 40 services alone ditched yesterday. Commuters faced miserable journeys just days after it emerged that Scotrail was planning to hike up its prices by an average of 2.8 per cent from next month.
Scotrail has insisted cancellations were down to the need to train up staff ahead of a new timetable being introduced next weekend.
However, members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of action at the end of September in protest that conductors and other staff are paid less than drivers for working on days off.
It has instructed its 3,500 members not to volunteer for overtime or work on “rest days” until further notice.
Services to and from Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Queen Street were among the worst affected over the weekend. However, there were also cancellations on the Inverness-kyle of Lochalsh route.
Rail services were much busier than normal due to Christmas shoppers heading into Edinburgh and Glasgow city centres. Thousands of football fans travelling to the Heartsrangers fixture in Edinburgh and the Celtic-aberdeen Scottish League Cup Final in Glasgow were also affected.
Passengers were alerted about cancellations yesterday in a tweet which stated: “Due to train crew shortages some services will be cancelled or altered today. We are sorry for any disruption.”
Train conductors and other RMT members are paid between £112 and £140 for working their rest days compared to £300 for drivers.
Mick Hogg, regional organiser at the RMT, said there was “no question” that the industrial action had caused the weekend disruption, adding: “It’s absolute carnage out there.”
The RMT has previously claimed that Scotrail was already short of conductors, ticket examiners, station and ticket office staff, cleaners and engineers. Scotrail has blamed the late arrival of new electric trains for the rush to get drivers and conductors familiarised. They will take over full running of the main Edinburgh-glasgow line from 9 December.
A spokesman for Scotrail said:” We’re sorry to our customers who have experienced disruption to their journey. The majority of the impact is a result of our final push to deliver the timetable improvements which will bring faster journeys, more seats, and more services for customers.”
Last week it emerged that Scotrail would be increasing the cost of season tickets and anytime day by 3.2 per cent, with off-peak tickets going up by 2.2 per cent.
It is the nature of large mainstream political parties to be divided, but never before have I witnessed one so at war with itself as Theresa May’s Conservative Party.
The Prime Minister’s Withdrawal Agreement is so thoroughly unpopular with her own MPS that speculation is now moving away from “if ” she will lose and on to the number she will lose by.
The Conservativehome website estimates there are 66 Tory MPS that have made public comments about opposing the Withdrawal Agreement while a more liberal interpretation by Buzzfeed puts the total at 101. Now, in what is possibly the most inept and foolish action I have ever seen by a Conservative leader, her party has dispatched tens of thousands of postcards to association offices so they can be put through letterboxes to encourage voters to tell their MP to back the Prime Minister’s “deal” when it comes to a vote in the Commons on 11 December. In addition the postcards are being backed up with online advertising.
MPS and party members are rightly furious, with many a comment being made that the postcards will not be distributed but will instead go straight to the local council tip. Others are outraged the money they raise from quiz nights, coffee mornings, book fairs, or wine tastings and the like, is being used not to help defeat political opponents but to lobby against the views of elected Conservatives. Given the so-called “rebels” are in fact MPS supporting the manifesto they were elected on, the use of the party machine against its own elected members is truly bizarre.
The latest Conservativehome members’ survey shows 68 per cent of respondents believe Conservative MPS should vote against the Withdrawal Agreement, underlining just how disconnected Theresa May has become from ordinary party members and conversely how in-touch the rebellious MPS are.
Unfortunately the voice and influence of the volunteers has been marginalised consistently over the last twenty years to the point that the leader (and thus the Prime Minister) faces little threat of accountability from the beating heart of the party. There was a time when the voluntary party, made up of those who pay their subs and toil on the doorsteps, invited the leadership to attend their conferences and hear members debate motions (including selecting some in a ballot) that could change the direction of policy and ensure the politicians did not get ahead of themselves. All of that has gone and the consequence is Theresa May now inhabits a world where she can think it is nothing out of the ordinary to rely on the votes of Labour MPS to force a policy on the country that is contrary to everything she was saying just last year.
Nor does she seem to think that if such a core policy as the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is rejected, thanks in the main to her own MPS being unwilling to support it, should she resign as Prime Minister and allow someone else to come forward and do better.
The Withdrawal Agreement is May’s policy through and through; it is no one else’s. Even the former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab only learned of the details the day before the Cabinet was informed. When it is defeated it will be a personal defeat for the Prime Minister. If she does not resign it can only be because she believes she can go back to Brussels and extract a better deal than she was prepared to put to parliament. It might be that