TRAIN drivers’ union ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan on Monday called for the railways to be taken back into public ownership.
Whelan welcomed news that Network Rail plans to invest £38 billion in railway infrastructure over the next five years – but said it’s not enough.
He said: ‘We welcome this news because we desperately need more investment in the infrastructure of this country. But £38 billion only keeps us standing still. It won’t let us get ahead of the game.
‘It’s like the way we are building HS2 which won’t connect with HS1; there’s not enough joined-up thinking to really build the transport system we need and we deserve.’
The Network Rail announcement was timed to coincide with news that Network Rail is to be fined a record £70 million for passenger delays. ”It’s the old good news/bad news story,’ said Whelan. Network Rail is spinning its investment plans to take the heat off its performance.
‘It’s massively disappointing for all of us who work in, and use, the railways in Britain and shows that twenty years of privatisation, and the constant drain of money out of the industry, and into the pockets of a few private investors, is having a deleterious effect on the railway.
‘The truth is that after twenty years of privatisation things aren’t getting better. That’s why opinion poll after opinion poll shows that most people – including most Conservative voters – in this country want our fragmented railways brought back into public ownership so we can run a properly integrated public service.
‘It’s time to build a better railway for everyone in Britain.’ Fellow rail union TSSA revealed on Monday that rail fares have trebled since British Rail was privatised twenty years ago on April Fool’s Day.
Independent research carried out for the union showed the biggest hike has been on Richard Branson’s Virgin line where a walk-on return fare from London to Manchester has increased by 245% since April 1 1994.
Fares expert Barry Doe found that equal first in the eye-watering increase table is First Great Western which also showed a 245% increase on the return fare from London to Bristol.
His top ten of fare rises since ill-fated Railtrack took over from BR 20 years ago show increases of between 151% and 245%. But overall price rises, shown by the RPI, increased by 78% over the same period.
‘This proves what every passenger knows in their bones’, said TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes. ‘The private rail industry has been ripping us all off for the past 20 years.
‘Fares on the most popular routes have more than trebled, rising three times faster than the rate of inflation. When the Tories sold off the railways, they gave the likes of tax exiles like Sir Richard a licence to print money. He and his fellow privateers have been exploiting that licence ever since.’
The union was one of the leaders of the successful campaign to end annual inflation-plus rail fare rises which the coalition finally agreed to halt in January, limiting the 2014 increase to the rate of inflation. But it is now asking a future Labour government to introduce a one-year fares freeze if it wins next year’s general election.
‘The Tories obviously took us all for April Fools in 1994, promising to actually cut fares but allowing them to go through the roof instead,’ Cortes added. We now want Labour to give rail passengers a real break by introducing a one year freeze from January 2016.’
• Meanwhile, RMT members working for Merseyrail contractors’ Lorne Stewart will be taking a third phase of strike action this week as the company continues to refuse to engage in serious talks aimed at resolving the dispute despite the best efforts of RMT’s negotiators.
Staff have been instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between 00:01 on Thursday 3rd April 2014 and 23:59 on Friday 4th April 2014. Lorne Stewart workers carry out the essential station cleaning and maintenance that helps keep Merseyrail moving.
After ten months of trying to negotiate, low-paid Lorne Stewart workers have stood firm and rejected the profitable company’s derisory below-inflation pay ‘offer’ and are continuing to make a stand for a just pay settlement without strings.
No matter how Lorne Stewart have tried to dress the offer up it still represents a cut in the standard of living and the institutionalisation of poverty pay. Two previous waves of strike action have been rock-solid and have attracted massive public support for the campaign for pay justice for the Merseyrail cleaners.
Despite that, Lorne Stewart are determined to make a nonsense of serious attempts by RMT to negotiate a fair settlement and continue to try to impose what amounts to a poisonous cocktail of de-facto pay cuts and institutionalised poverty pay.
RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said: ‘Despite two rock-solid rounds of strike action which have shown the strength of our members’ feelings, Lorne Stewart continues to refuse to address the issue of poverty pay on Merseyrail and that is why we are striking again this week.
‘The public are well aware that it is the hard graft of these cleaning staff that keeps Merseyrail trains fit for service and which makes Lorne Stewart’s substantial profits.
‘It is a disgrace that these essential rail staff have been offered what amounts to a real terms cut in their standard of living – they are rightly making a stand against that gross injustice. The company claim that it can’t afford to pay the cleaning staff a decent living wage is pure nonsense.
‘The latest profit figure is £15 million – that’s £5,000 for every one of its workers in straight profit for the company bosses and their shareholders. Lorne Stewart have got the money to pay a decent, living wage with proper annual increases and it’s about time they and Merseyrail delivered a fair deal and pay justice for the workers who generate the profits doing some of the dirtiest jobs on Britain’s transport network.’
• The RMT announced yesterday that it is to begin balloting staff this week across Heathrow Express for industrial action in response to a package of multi-million pound cuts which amount to an all-out assault on pay, jobs and safety.
Ballot papers will be sent out today and the ballot – for both strike action and action short of a strike – will close on 15th April.
RMT has had a formal notice that Heathrow Express plans to re-organise its workforce indicating that, in an attempt to save £6 million over the next five years, some 201 jobs are now placed under threat of redundancy, representing almost a half of the current workforce.
The attack on jobs and working conditions comes as a direct result of the decision of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to cut £600 million from the Heathrow Airport budget over the same period.
In order to meet their share of this cuts target Heathrow Express are proposing:
• The removal of the Customer Service Representative (CSR) role to be replaced by a new Customer Host grade on a reduced salary.
• Current CSR staff to see their pay frozen for an expected ten years until the proposed new grade reaches an equivalent salary.
• Removal of the CSA grade on Heathrow Connect Services and for Train Drivers to take on the ‘evacuation of passengers in emergency’ role.
• The extension of Driver Only Operation and self-despatch of trains at all locations apart from Paddington.
