Rail plans condemned


Transport unions have condemned as “piecemeal privatisation” transport secretary Chris Grayling’s plans to allow private train operating companies and others to run sections of rail infrastructure. They have accused him of dragging the railways back to a failed and lethal model.


“The failures and tragedies of the Railtrack era remind us that infrastructure should never be run for profit,” said Mick Whelan, general secretary of the Aslef train drivers’ union. 


His words were echoed by Mick Cash, leader of the RMT rail union. He commented: “The introduction of the profit motive into infrastructure raises again the spectre of Hatfield and Potters Bar and the other grotesque failures that led to the creation of Network Rail.” 


And the Unite general union said that Grayling’s plans to strip Network Rail of complete control of England’s railway tracks amounted to “a recipe for further fragmentation of the UK’s rail system with adverse implications for passenger safety”.

www.aslef.org.uk/information/163061/government_rail_policy_is_bankrupt/

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-to-fight-graylings-plans-to-privatise-network-rail

www.unitetheunion.org/news/graylings-rail-plans-threaten-passenger-safety-says-unite