RMT WORKERS MOURN PASSING OF EAST LONDON LINE TO PRIVATEERS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: january 2008 :: RMTnews 7 E ast London Line workers and supporters gathered for a sad demonstration outside City Hall last month against the “unnecessary, damaging and potentially dangerous” privatisation of the Tube line. The line closed in December for much- needed refurbishment and extension, before being handed over to privateer MTR Laing when it reopens in 2010. It will be the first Tube line in seven decades to see its operations handed to the private sector, despite the opposition of 75 per cent of Londoners and the TUC. Opposition to the privatisation of rail services is fully supported by Labour Party policy. East London Line worker and RMT branch secretary Jason Humphreys said that privatisation is overwhelmingly opposed by users and the people who run the network. “It is all the more galling because it is completely unnecessary,” he said outside Shadwell station with his work colleagues. “MTR Laing won’t be running the East London Line out of a sense of civic duty, they’ll be doing it for ten per cent of the takings,” he said. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union’s experience and all the facts showed that rail privatisation was costly and inefficient, drains public resources into private pockets and, most importantly, the fragmentation involved compromises safety. “A report from a leading rail safety expert has told us that the fragmented London Rail set-up will make the East London Line more difficult to operate safely. “You would have thought that the expensive shambles of Metronet and the PPP and the complete failure of national rail franchising would have been lesson enough, but we shall carry on campaigning until the message gets through,” he said. The new London Rail Concession, which is planned to include the extended East London Line, will be an unnecessarily complex hybrid of the London Underground network and national rail network. Under TfL's plans at least eight components will be involved in running the London Rail franchise. Of these, two will be responsible for signalling operations, two for infrastructure maintenance, two for infrastructure renewals, one for train and station operations and one for train maintenance. The also plans include the removal of guards from the already overcrowded North and West London Lines by 2011 – a year before the biggest-ever influx of visitors to the capital, for the 2012 Olympics. The plan was exposed when RMT obtained the invitation to tender under freedom of information law. DEFIANT: East London Line workers Sandra Ryan, Jason Humphreys, Cerise Vidal, Katie Effer and Hadrian Benn wear their RMT ‘we will be back’ badges RMT WORKERS MOURN PASSING OF EAST LONDON LINE TO PRIVATEERS BADGE: Local RMT activists produced a limited-edition badge for ELL members and those involved in the anti-privatisation campaign - and a limited number are still available from Jason Humphreys, Branch Secretary, or Mark Harding H&C branch secretary, with all proceeds raised going to the London Widows and Orphans Fund.