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.
17 January 2018
On the back of new contracts, Bombardier has announced more apprenticeships in Derby to work on the new Aventra trains.
The government talks about having a strategy, but the reality is that overambitious forecasts are likely to leave services cut, and taxpayers and passengers picking up the bill…
Disputes about staffing and pay are sweeping through the rail industry…
29 December 2017
Strikes to halt the removal of guards continue on many passenger franchises. The RMT announced further strike action extending into the new year in the separate disputes on Merseyrail, Northern, Greater Anglia, South Western Railways and Island Line.
The capitalist carousel that now typifies Britain’s railways continues as London Midland loses the franchise to operate routes across the region’s network.
Beset by EU-dictated cost rises, the transport secretary is cancelling a raft of plans to extend electrification across the rail network. The move has sparked fierce opposition, and not a little ridicule…
The RMT has called further strikes in Southern, Arriva Rail Northern and Merseyrail in September over the future of train guards.
29 June 2017
The SNP has pressed on with plans to break up British Transport Police despite widespread opposition from rail unions to police chiefs. This attempt to reinforce separatism went ahead despite union warnings that it would damage and not protect policing in Scotland.
Government cuts in funding to Network Rail threaten to precipitate a major skills shortage in the industry as well as threatening jobs and safety.
18 June 2017
Following the suicide bombing in Manchester rail union TSSA has demanded the SNP halt its plan to merge British Transport Police Scotland with Police Scotland.
Building the new Britain means building new railways, making the equipment here in Britain, and running the rail network in the way we decide, for the benefit of the people.
9 April 2017
RMT members chose to strike on Grand National day to get maximum publicity for their campaign of opposition to plans to introduce driver-only-operated trains
Britain’s railways have become a battleground as companies bent on profit look to cut corners…
Last year more than £90 million was paid out in dividends to the mainly state-owned Italian, French, Dutch and German rail companies running British rail franchises.
3 January 2017
Rail unions and passenger groups are kicking off the new year with two days of protests against high fares.
Under the EU our railways have been fragmented, privatised and sold off to foreign – mainly state-owned – companies. With independence looming, what now needs to be done?
The government wants massive cuts to staffing on Britain’s railways regardless of safety. ASLEF is to ballot train drivers in Southern rail against that threat, joining RMT guards in their increasingly bitter dispute.
Deutsche Bahn, the German state-owned rail company, has axed nearly 900 jobs, a quarter of its British workforce.
11 October 2016
RMT Scotrail members have a victory in their fight for safety. Those working on Southern face the same problem, but their employer has escalted the dispute.
The struggle for safety and jobs on Britain’s railways is intensifying as the government seeks to take on the unions.
The rail unions are fighting running battles across Britain over safety, with one rail company after the other looking to dispense with guards…
4 June 2016
Britain’s biggest rail franchise company, Govia Thameslink Railway, has launched an all-out war on its staff. Now the High Court has entered the fray, barring drivers’ union ASLEF from taking industrial action.
27 April 2016
RMT members on Southern Railway have concluded a successful 24-hour strike over driver-only operation, forcing the employer back to the negotiating table.
2 April 2016
Rail union RMT members hoisted the German flag over Newcastle Central station on 1 April, the day that German state railway operator Deutsche Bahn took over Northern rail services.
2 February 2016
The decision that Transport for London will take over all overland rail services into London is a recognition that privatisation has been a miserable and costly failure.
30 November 2015
In a significant move, rail unions ASLEF and RMT have agreed a joint statement opposing the operation of trains without a guard – a direct response to plans to operate new inter-city trains with drivers only.
18 August, Waterloo Station: rail unions and the TUC’s Action for Rail Campaign demonstrated against the double attack of fare increases and staff cuts.
8 July 2015
London’s Tube services are set for a complete shutdown today as all the major unions in London Underground strike for 24 hours from 6pm in a dispute over the introduction of all-night Tube trains.
