TSSA members at Network Rail have voted to accept the latest offer. The union said 85 per cent of its members voted yes, and that 70 per cent of 2,500 members had voted. The settlement does not end TSSA’s dispute with train operators. TSSA said the offer is worth a minimum consolidated pay increase of between 9 and 11 per cent, along with guarantees on terms and conditions, and job security until 2025. Organising director Luke Chester said: ‘This is a decisive result with our members roundly endorsing this offer. It’s great news and a great deal for our members in Network Rail. It just shows what can be done through negotiations when there’s a serious offer on the table.’ Meanwhile, the RMT is going ahead with its latest 48-hour strike today and tomorrow, with more planned in January. It also starts an overtime ban on Sunday which is set to continue until 2 January. However, it said last night that it had attended talks convened by the rail minister Huw Merrriman, which also included Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group. The union has agreed to further discussions ‘in order to find resolutions’. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘These meetings will be arranged but in the meantime all industrial action remains in place.’

Adrian Shooter, an engineer who led the first Chiltern Railways franchise and founded Vivarail, has died. Mr Shooter, who was 74 and unveiled a statue of himself at London Marylebone station earlier this year, had joined British Rail in 1970 as a management trainee. He became maintenance engineer at Bletchley then depot manager at Heaton, followed by the post of area maintenance engineer at Carlisle. He worked on projects at Bournemouth and Selhurst depot, before becoming area manager, St Pancras, for the London Midland Region. As privatisation approached he led the management of the Chiltern Railways Train Operating Unit for BR and won the first franchise, which began in July 1996, later becoming chairman of DB Regio UK after the second Chiltern franchise was acquired by Deutsche Bahn in 2008. This franchise had begun in 2002 and ran until December 2021. Exceptionally, the contract included major infrastructure upgrades, such as redoubling parts of the Chiltern Main Line, a new depot at Wembley and building the chord at Bicester which allowed trains to run for the first time between London Marylebone and Oxford. In 2013 he set up Vivarail Ltd, which bought redundant District Line cars from Transport for London and refurbished them to become ‘D-Trains’ with new forms of traction, including battery power. The units have entered service with several operators, including South Western Railway’s Island Line, but regrettably Vivarail has now called in administrators after it failed to identify new investors. Even so, Adrian had ably demonstrated the possibilities of reusing older vehicles to provide economical rolling stock upgrades. He was also the chairman of SLC Rail, whose managing director Ian Walters said: ‘I am deeply saddened by the passing of this great man. I met Adrian on my first day working in the rail industry in November 1991, and I feel lucky and honoured to have had his mentorship and friendship since then. ‘We have benefited from Adrian’s leadership, wisdom and experience, and focus on what worked for passengers. As we’ve grown as a business, it has been a privilege to have him as part of the SLC team for so many years. ‘It is no exaggeration that his involvement and advocacy has been fundamental to our success.’ Adrian himself paid generous tributes to colleagues, saying: ‘All I ever did was create the vision, hire the very best people and then help them to do their best. They, not me, were the people who delighted our passengers. They had to work in all weathers and run a safe railway wherever the problems. Some of them relieved me of the tedium of negotiating and implementing the many over-complicated legal agreements we have been saddled with. ‘It has been a very real pleasure to see so many people grow in confidence and help create a bigger and much better railway supported by private sector investment.’ The present managing director of Chiltern Railways Richard Allan said: ‘We are deeply sorry to hear about the death of Adrian. We and our customers owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for the vision, drive and passion that he and his team brought to bear in creating and developing Chiltern from 1996 onwards. ‘Adrian was a leader, a colleague and a friend to many current and former colleagues at Chiltern and in the wider railway industry. It was only a few months ago that a group of industry colleagues were delighted to welcome Adrian to Marylebone to commemorate his immense contribution to Chiltern and the rail industry over his 50 year career. Adrian and his family unveiled a statue of him on Platform 1, and he was so very proud to be asked to unveil a train named in his honour.’ Adrian Shooter was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and of the Chartered Institute of Transport and was awarded CBE in 2010. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease, and died in Switzerland. Adrian Shooter CBE FREng FIMechE22 November 1948–13 December 2022

Railfreight down ++ The Office of Rail and Road has reported that freight volumes fell between 1 July and 30 September. The regulator said the drop had been caused by strikes. Total freight moved was four billion net tonne kilometres, which was 6.4 per cent lower than in the same three months a year earlier. The chief executive of the industry lobby group Rail Partners, Andy Bagnall, has warned that the decline underlines the ‘negative impact industrial action is having on rail freight demand, despite not directly involving the freight companies’. He continued: ‘Some customers are already losing confidence due to the disruption and switching from rail to road. There is a very real risk that if resolution is not achieved quickly, more customers will choose less environmentally sustainable modes in the long term. This not only puts the potential growth of the sector at risk, but it also undermines the ability of rail freight to contribute to wider economic growth and support the achievement of net zero targets.’ Radio row ++ Train services are badly disrupted again today by the first 48-hour RMT strike of train operating and Network Rail staff this week. Many lines are closed for a second day, and another strike is set to be staged on Friday and Saturday in the continuing dispute over pay and conditions. Meanwhile, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has accused the BBC of ‘parroting’ the right-wing press. In a heated exchange with Today programme presenter Mishal Husain, Mr Lynch said: ‘You never show any admiration for the fight that working people are putting up for our country, for the rebalancing of society. You never criticise the super-rich for what they're doing to nurses, what they're doing to postal workers, and you never seem to take an impartial view on the way this society is balanced at the moment with the complete lack of distribution of wealth.’ The BBC has declined to comment.

Members of the RMT have rejected the latest pay offer from Network Rail. The proposed increase would have been 5 and 4 per cent over two years, but the union is opposing the offer, along with job losses. The majority against the settlement was 63.6 per cent, and the turnout was 83 per cent. The result of the ballot was announced on the eve of a 48-hour national strike, which started this morning. Only limited services are running on certain routes, and many lines have no trains at all. The walkout has affected nearly all operators in England, but services in Scotland and Wales are also disrupted by the lack of Network Rail signallers. Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said there had been ‘clearly a significant number of Network Rail colleagues who want this deal, but are caught up by these needless strikes and collective bargaining’, while rail minister Huw Merriman described the walkouts as ‘very damaging’. He urged RMT general secretary Mick Lynch to ‘come back to the table’. However, Mr Lynch said: ‘This is a huge rejection of Network Rail's substandard offer and shows that our members are determined to take further strike action in pursuit of a negotiated settlement. The government is refusing to lift a finger to prevent these strikes and it is clear they want to make effective strike action illegal in Britain. ‘We will resist that and our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions.’ The Department for Transport said it had helped with a ’fair and improved offer’, and that the pay increases were more than those in the private sector. The strikes today and tomorrow are set to be followed by a second 48-hour walkout on Friday and Saturday, and Network Rail staff are also due to strike between the evening of 24 December and 27 December, disrupting Christmas engineering work. If there is no settlement in the meantime, two more 48-hour national strikes have also been called for 3-4 and 6-7 January.

Overnight snow in southern England is disrupting train services around London and in East Anglia. Thameslink, Southern, Gatwick Express, South Western Railway and Southeastern are all warning of delays and cancellations, and there are also problems on the Greater Anglia network, where icy conditions have meant that a track inspection must be carried out. Network Rail said hundreds of staff are defrosting frozen points and signals, and trains with snow ploughs are also being used. National Rail braces for strikes this week Members of the RMT at Network Rail and English train operators are preparing to walk out for four days this week, as the dispute over pay and conditions continues. There will be a 48-hour strike tomorrow and Wednesday, and a second stoppage on Friday and Saturday. Services are also expected to be disrupted on Thursday, partly because some trains will be out of position. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has called for a meeting with the Prime Minister as the deadlock between the unions, rail management and the government continues. Another strike has been called of Network Rail staff between 24 and 27 December, which is set to interrupt maintainance and upgrade work planned during Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Rail minister Huw Merriman has visited King’s Cross station in London to see progress with the installation of digital signalling on the southern section of the East Coast Main Line. During the past year the programme to introduce the European Train Control System has seen newly-equipped trains used on the Northern City Line between Finsbury Park and Moorgate, while the first retrofitted passenger trains have been tested at the upgraded Rail Innovation and Development Centre. More rolling stock will be fitted soon, including suburban passenger trains and freight locomotives. Almost 3,000 drivers will be trained to work with information on a monitor in the cab instead of from signals by the lineside, and there are also plans to fit ETCS on those steam locomotives which are approved for special runs on the main line. The past year has also seen government approval of the Full Business Case for the project, which is supported by over £1 billion of further investment. The rail minister was shown the project during his visit to King’s Cross yesterday, when he said: ‘It has truly been a year of breakthrough delivery on our East Coast Digital Programme, from the commissioning of new signalling to the testing of trains.’ Network Rail’s director, Industry Partnership for Digital Railway, Toufic Machnouk, said: ‘We are creating the future railway. We are pushing the boundaries with our collaboration across the industry, and demonstrating what the industry can achieve when working together.’ 

The railway industrial relations crisis deepened last night, when the drivers’ union ASLEF announced that its members at 12 operators had voted ‘overwhelmingly’ to continue striking over pay during the next six months. The RMT also appears to have hardened its stance, when it emerged on Sunday night that widespread extensions of driver only operation were part of the latest offer from the Rail Delivery Group. The new ASLEF ballot was a legal requirement. The union’s general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘This shows just how angry, and determined, our members are. The turnouts were huge and the mandates are overwhelming. ‘The resolve of our members is rock steady. A 93 per cent “Yes” vote, up on the very high figure last time, on an average turnout of 85 per cent shows that our members are in this for the long haul. ‘Now we don’t want to go on strike. We don’t want to inconvenience passengers, our friends and families use the railway too, and we believe in investing in rail for the future of our country, and drivers don’t want to lose a day’s pay. Strikes are always a last resort. ‘But the intransigent attitude of the train companies, with the government acting, with malice, in the shadows, has forced our hand. ‘These drivers, who were, don’t forget, the people who moved key workers and goods around the country during the pandemic, have not had a pay rise for nearly four years since April 2019. With inflation running in excess of 14 per cent the companies and the government are saying that they want us to take a real terms pay cut. ‘That’s why we are calling on the companies to come to the table with a proper proposal to help our members, their drivers, buy this year what they could buy last year. That is the way to prevent another strike and all the disruption that causes. The ball is now firmly in the train companies’ court. And we are calling on the government to help, not hinder, the negotiating process.’ The situation also worsened when the RMT said last night that it ‘just heard from the Rail Delivery Group and there will be no revised offer from them on the TOC-side of the dispute and they have been instructed by the government instead to take on the strike action set out, rather than trying to resolve the dispute through negotiations’. The union has refused an offer which would have meant 4 per cent pay increases in 2022 and 2023. It continued: ‘It is now absolutely clear that the RDG’s attempts to resolve the dispute by making a revised and improved offer have been blocked by the government. ‘The companies know that RMT cannot, and never will, accept the implementation of Driver Only Operation as a national principle for operating the railways. ‘It is also clear that it is the government itself, and not the RDG, that insisted that DOO was inserted in to the proposals on Sunday evening as a pre-condition, and the responsibility for the failure to progress proposals towards a resolution lies solely with the government, who have torpedoed the dispute resolution process. ‘The planned Industrial action for RMT Train Operating Company members goes ahead as scheduled as there is no resolution to the dispute and in fact a resolution to the dispute is now further away due to the government’s late intervention in the negotiating process.’ Major 48-hour walkouts affecting most train operators and Network Rail are set to go ahead on 13-14 and 16-17 December, and the RMT has announced a further stoppage, from 18.00 on Christmas Eve to 05.59 on 27 December, which will affect travellers during the late afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve. There are no National Rail trains on Christmas Day and very few on Boxing Day, but projects at more than 300 worksites over the holiday period are set to be disrupted. Unless there is a breakthrough in the talks, there will be two more 48-hour RMT strikes on 3-4 and 6-7 January. Operators have warned passengers not to travel during the strikes unless their journeys are ‘absolutely necessary’. Rail Delivery Group chair Steve Montgomery said: ‘Regrettably, the RMT leadership’s refusal to put our proposed 8 per cent pay offer to its membership means we are unable to reach a resolution at this stage, although we remain open to talks. With the deadline having passed where disruption could be avoided even if strikes were called off, our focus is on giving passengers the maximum possible certainty so they can make their festive plans. ‘No one wanted to see these strikes go ahead, and we can only apologise to passengers and to the many businesses who will be hit by this unnecessary and damaging disruption. ‘We continue to urge RMT leaders to put our proposals to their members rather than condemning them to weeks of lost pay either side of Christmas during a cost-of-living crisis.’ Meanwhile, cleaners who work on railway contracts on behalf of third-party companies demonstrated outside the Department for Transport offices in London yesterday afternoon. Their union the RMT is calling on Mark Harper to ‘give a mandate to train operators to end the scandal of outsourcing’. The RMT is calling for cleaners to receive £15 an hour, sick pay and ‘decent’ pensions. The cleaners, who the RMT said are employed by contractors such as Churchill, Atalian Servest, Mitie and Bidvest Noonan, will be striking on 22, 23 and 31 December.

Merseyrail said it will run a ‘limited’ train service during the forthcoming RMT strikes on 13-14 and 16-17 December. The Merseyrail network will be affected by the lack of Network Rail signallers and maintenance staff on strike days, and so frequencies will be reduced and no trains will run in the evenings. Merseyrail has also warned that its services are likely to be affected when staff stage another walkout between 24 and 27 December. Fire disrupted trains at Wolverhampton Train services were disrupted by a warehouse fire close to the railway at Wolverhampton which broke out on Monday night. Network Rail was forced to close the line, because the main wall of the gutted warehouse building had become unstable and was at risk of collapsing on to the track nearby. Services were suspended on the Stour Valley line between Wolverhampton, Sandwell & Dudley and Birmingham New Street, and six Stour Valley stations were closed. Rail replacement buses were provided, and the train service has now been restored. Classic Electrostars are refurbished Govia Thameslink Railway has completed a modernisation programme of 75 Class 377/4 Electrostar units which run on its Southern Railway routes. New features include information screens and at-seat charging and power points, as well as modern engineering equipment to improve reliability. The upgrade has been carried out by GTR staff at Selhurst depot. The fleet was built by Bombardier in Derby about 20 years ago to replace slam-door stock, and the oldest of the class have run almost four million kilometres since then.

The RMT has reacted to the latest pay offer from the Rail Delivery Group by calling another strike of its Network Rail members. The stoppage, from 18.00 on Christmas Eve to 05.59 on 27 December, will affect travellers during the late afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve, because there are no National Rail trains on Christmas Day and very few on Boxing Day, but projects at more than 300 worksites over the holiday period are now set to be disrupted. Network Rail's chief negotiator Tim Shoveller said the union is ‘playing fast and loose with people's Christmas plans and the new strike dates announced deliberately target vital engineering work designed to improve the railway’. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘We remain available for talks in order to resolve these issues but we will not bow to pressure from the employers and the government to the detriment of our members.’ Strikes of 48 hours already called for 13-14 and 16-17 December will go ahead, and these will affect train operators as well as Network Rail. Transport secretary Mark Harper responded: ‘It’s incredibly disappointing that, despite a new and improved deal offering job security and a fair pay rise, the RMT is not only continuing with upcoming industrial action but has called more strikes over Christmas. ‘It’s especially disappointing given the TSSA union has described this new and improved deal as the “best we can achieve through negotiation” and called off strikes. ‘The government has played its part by facilitating a fair and decent offer but, by instructing its members to reject it, the RMT has failed to play its part and our rail network now faces more harmful disruption rather than helpful discussion.’ The offer which the RMT has rejected consisted of a ‘framework agreement’,which would have funded pay increases of up to 8 per cent for the pay awards in 2022 and 2023. The RDG had said ‘changes to working practices’ were also part of the deal, and unconfirmed reports have claimed that these include many more trains without conductors, when their doors would be operated by the driver. Even recently-built main line trains include door controls in the driver’s cab. Meanwhile, the RMT is putting a new offer from Network Rail to its members in an electronic referendum, accompanied by a recommendation to reject. This ballot will close on 12 December at midday.

The RMT has turned down a new pay offer from the operators who belong to the Rail Delivery Group, describing it as ‘not acceptable’. The union is demanding a meeting today as the first of the Christmas strikes get nearer. The offer consisted of a ‘framework agreement’,which would have funded pay increases of up to 8 per cent for the pay awards in 2022 and 2023. The RDG said: ‘This is a fair and affordable offer in challenging times, providing a significant uplift in salary for staff. If approved by the RMT, implementation could be fast-tracked to ensure staff go into Christmas secure in the knowledge that they will receive this enhanced pay award early in the New Year alongside a guarantee of job security until April 2024. ‘With revenue stuck at 20 per cent below pre-pandemic levels and many working practices unchanged in decades, taxpayers who have contributed £1,800 per household to keep the railway running in recent years, will balk at continuing to pump billions of pounds a year into an industry that desperately needs to move forward with long-overdue reforms and that alienates potential customers with sustained industrial action. ‘We urge the RMT leadership to put this offer to its membership and remove the threat of a month of industrial action over Christmas that will upset the travel plans of millions and cause real hardship for businesses which depend on Christmas custom. Instead, we urge the RMT to move forward together with us and so we can give our people a pay rise and deliver an improved railway with a sustainable, long-term future for those who work on it.’ The offer includes changes to working practices which would ’formalise’ the current voluntary Sunday working arrangements, introduce part time contracts and ‘flexible working‘ rosters, and also see the creation of ‘multi-skilled’ station staff, who would be ‘equipped to take on a range of responsibilities’. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said last night: ‘We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions. ‘The RDG and DfT who sets their mandate, both knew this offer would not be acceptable to RMT members.  ‘If this plan was implemented, it would not only mean the loss of thousands of jobs but the use of unsafe practices such as DOO and would leave our railways chronically understaffed. ‘RMT is demanding an urgent meeting with the RDG tomorrow morning with a view to securing a negotiated settlement on job security, working conditions and pay.’ The union added that Network Rail has also made a ‘complex offer on pay and working practices‘ which its National Executive Committee will discuss today. Transport minister Mark Harper was quick to respond to the RMT’s reaction, saying: ‘The RMT has been offered an improved new deal by the train operating companies and has rejected it outright. The situation is incredibly disappointing, and unfair to the public, passengers and the rail workforce who want a deal. ‘Our railways need to modernise. There’s no place for outdated working practices that rely on voluntary overtime to run a reliable seven-day service. Passengers should also receive the service they’ve paid for. This deal will help get trains running on time. ‘The government continues to play its part in trying to facilitate a resolution to this dispute, while rightly letting the employers do the negotiating. Now it’s for the unions to play their part too by putting the offer from the train operating companies to their members and call off industrial action that would damage the rail industry, rail workers and the wider economy.’ Unless there is a breakthrough, walkouts by 40,000 RMT railway members are still set to go ahead in pairs of 48-hour strikes separated by one day in each case, when disruption is also likely. They will affect 14 train operators and Network Rail on 13-14 and 16-17 December, and on 3-4 and 6-7 January.