Rail disruption as guards strike

Rail disruption as guards strike

Train services have been disrupted

Rail services have been disrupted across Scotland after hundreds of train guards went on strike.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) staged walk-outs from 0001 GMT on Friday over the safety role of guards on trains.

It is the first of three planned 24-hour stoppages in a dispute which will affect nine train companies across the UK.

In Scotland the strike has hit ScotRail and Virgin Train services but not those on the east coast run by GNER or by Strathclyde Passenger Transport.

All that the conductors will achieve by this is lost wages and we can't concede on this because it's a matter of safety

Peter Cotton
ScotRail managing director

Two further strikes are planned for 31 March and 17 April.

The RMT wants to change the rules back to the days when guards were in overall charge of train safety.

At present, the guards' role is confined to looking after passengers inside the train.

The dispute first surfaced at the end of the 1990s when most train companies switched the responsibility for safety from guards to drivers.

'Pointless strike'

GNER has agreed to work with the union on this issue.

Virgin said it was running more services than it had hoped, with 50% of trains running on the West Coast line, including a full Glasgow-London service.

However, the company said there is a very limited service on its cross-country routes.

Services between Dundee and Aberdeen and Aberdeen to Inverness were reduced to a skeleton timetable.

ScotRail failed in a legal challenge to halt the strike

There have been no ScotRail or Virgin Trains between Edinburgh and Fife and there are only a handful between Perth and Aberdeen.

All services to Stirling and Cumbernauld were cancelled due to the industrial action.

ScotRail is running around half its services with the trains between Edinburgh and Glasgow running every half-hour.

Routes to the North and East have a restricted service.

ScotRail failed in a late effort to halt the walkout.

The operator had written to the RMT threatening a legal challenge if it failed to call off industrial action.

But it later decided not to seek an interim interdict.

It's really not good enough

Commuter Lisa Mulligan

ScotRail managing director Peter Cotton said it was "a pointless strike" and apologised to passengers.

"All that the conductors will achieve by this is lost wages and we can't concede on this because it's a matter of safety," he said.

"We will abide by what the safety regulator decides."

Safety case

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, said nine train companies were not prepared to accept a safety case which had been accepted by a number of others.

"It beggars belief that these train companies are not prepared to accept the changes we are offering," he said.

The RMT said this reduced the role of guards to onboard "KitKat sellers".

Passengers have vented their frustration over the disruption and some said they simply wanted services to run on time.

Commuter Lisa Mulligan said the UK Government should step in to help resolve the crisis.

"It is really not good enough," the medical secretary said.

"It's got to the stage now where you find yourself praying that the train you want to use is running while making your way to the station."