18 June 2020
The RMT union has condemned plans by American giant Wabtec to cut rail refurbishment jobs at Doncaster under the cover of Covid-19.
11 June 2020
While important railway enhancement works have started up again in England and Wales, the devolved Scottish administration has not allowed workers in the sector to return, keeping it under lockdown.
HS2 or High Speed 2, a new railway from London to Birmingham and then on to the north, has finally got the green signal from the Johnson government…
1 February 2020
Manufacturing union Unite has slammed the government over its commitment to British train manufacturing after a £337 milion contract for new Tyne & Wear metro trains was been awarded to a Swiss company.
10 January 2020
As the rail industry waits for the publication of the Williams Review, the current franchise system continues to collapse under the weight of its many contradictions.
10 January 2020
This week British rail fares rose up to 2.7 per cent while German national rail company Deutsche Bahn made its tickets 10 per cent cheaper for long-distance traffic.
Transport union RMT’s campaign to keep guards on trains continues to grind on, with another employer capitulating in the face of determined and resolute industrial action.
19 November 2019
The Unite HQ in Glasgow was the setting for a trade union meeting involving current and former officials of the RMT union and others that heard from Anthony Coughlan, a veteran of decades of struggle against the EU in Ireland.
18 November 2019
While RMT negotiators inch towards a final settlement of the long running dispute in Merseyrail, the dispute in South Western Railway has escalated dramatically – and a new front has opened up in West Midlands Trains.
The government is to publish a White Paper to implement the findings of the review of the rail industry led by Keith Williams – ruling out further public ownership.
21 September 2019
With anger growing at the service failures Abellio ScotRail, members and supporters of the RMT union marched through Glasgow to the company HQ and on to the Scottish Government offices .
With East Midlands going to the Dutch and the West Coast franchise to the Italian state railway, nearly 80 per cent of Britain’s rail operations will soon be in foreign hands.
Workers from North Glasgow’s famous “Caley” railyard have left their workplace for what looks to be the last time – and have condemned inaction by the SNP administration.
As most of the rail unions know, the future of their industry is intimately bound up with Brexit. Only independence from the EU can provide the freedom to run our railways in the national interest…
11 June 2019
Like many cities Bristol needs better public transport. Bristolians have been doing something about that with a long running campaign for an improved local train service.
25 April 2019
Rail unions were claiming victory over the Easter weekend after the announcement that 47 of the 51 ticket offices slated for closure on London Overground will be retained.
Even the government admits the rail system is a mess. Its solution could make matters worse…
The fragmentation of Britain’s railways has its roots in an EEC directive (91/440/EEC) handed down in 1991. This directive decreed the separation of infrastructure from train operations, with the express purpose of creating a competitive market. It was the blueprint used by John Major for the Conservative government’s privatisation of Britain’s railways from 1994 to 1996.
The Labour Party is mired in monumental confusion over the future direction of the railways. Nationally, its policy is to return the railways to public ownership and control. But since privatisation, whenever it has been in power, it has done the reverse.
Rail workers in the RMT union have scored a significant victory in their battle with private train companies to secure the future of guards on trains. It’s part of a wider fight…
The Scottish transport secretary refused to face union delegation fighting for the retention of skilled railway work in Scotland.
11 February 2019
RMT members on Northern Trains look to have brought their two-year dispute over guards on trains to a successful conclusion. Talks will now take place to put an agreement into practice.
Members of rail union RMT in the north of England have now taken their 40th day of strike action.
Continued membership of the EU – and some pro-EU unions are pushing hard in that direction – would doom Britain’s railways to eternal privatisation.
Designs for two new stations which will form a key part of the HS2 rail plan have now been unveiled.
24 August 2018
Network Rail has confirmed that it will use the freedoms presented by next year’s Brexit to cut needless costs.
It’s been called the biggest disaster to befall our railways in peacetime history – caused by the complexity of the privatised rail industry and an inept government that doesn’t understand how the industry works…
As parts of the rail network fail and the government’s Whitehall farce leads to ever more absurdities, the campaign to bring railways back into public ownership is gathering momentum around Britain…
26 April 2018
A national protest against Driver Only Operation outside Parliament on 25 April drew rail workers and union banners from many towns and regions across the country.
16 April 2018
American private equity firm Apollo Management has made a bid for one of Britain’s largest bus and rail companies, First Group, which has rebuffed the initial bid.
