NETWORK RAIL FACES GRAYRIGG PROSECUTION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2012 :: RMTnews 7 RMT MEETINGS and CONFERENCES, 2012 FEBRUARY RMT Young Members’ Conference 23/25 London Road Freight/Transport Grades Conference 24 Doncaster Signalling Grades Conference 25/26 Folkestone RMT National Health and Safety Conference 29 Doncaster MARCH Catering and Hotel Grades Conference 2/4 Southport RMT National Women’s Conference 9/10 Weymouth Supervisory Grades Conference 16/17 Edinburgh RMT Black and Ethnic Minority Members’ 14/15 London Traincrew and Shunters Grades Conference 29/31 Gloucester APRIL Engineering Grades Conference 12/13 Kirkaldy Station Staff & Associated Grades 20/21 Teignmouth Busworkers’ Conference 20/21 Croyde Bay Scottish TUC RMT Retired Members’ Conference 26 London MAY Shipping BGM 16/18 Eastbourne RMT National LGBT Members’ Conference 18 Southampton Offshore BGM 22/23 Dundee JUNE RMT National Conference of Branch and TBC Regional Council Secretaries RMT Annual General Meeting 24/ 29 Torquay T he tendering for the new Greater Western franchise, now underway and due to operate from April 2013, is being conducted under the terms of the Sir Roy McNulty Rail Review before the government has taken it through the parliamentary process, threatening jobs and passenger services. The tender documents make it clear that bidding will be conducted under the framework set out by McNulty and that means the closure of ticket offices at 29 Category E stations and severe reductions in opening hours at a further 17 Category D stations. The McNulty Rail Review maps out a plan for 30 per cent reductions in operating costs while protecting the profits of private train operators, making it clear that the cuts can only be made by savage reductions in staffing and passenger services, including ticket offices, and by bridging the gap through higher fares. The government response to McNulty, expected to take the form of a parliamentary “Command Paper”, has not yet been made yet ministers are conducting new tendering for franchises within the scope of its recommendations without parliamentary approval. T he Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has launched criminal proceedings against Network Rail for a breach of health and safety law which caused a Virgin Trains Pendolino train to derail near Grayrigg on February 23 2007. Earlier investigations and last year’s inquest into the death of passenger Margaret Masson concluded that the derailment was caused by a poorly maintained set of points. The Office of Rail Regulation is both the budget holder and the rail regulator and the union has consistently argued that the ORR should not be demanding yet more cuts from Network Rail which adds to the risk of having inadequate time and staff to complete proper patrols and maintenance. The ORR is currently enforcing 15 per cent maintenance budget cuts at the Preston depot covering the Grayrigg area. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that no organisation had fought harder than RMT for the lessons of the Grayrigg disaster to be learned to stop preventable tragedies like Grayrigg from happening in the future. "There remain systemic problems which have failed to be addressed since this derailment and they have been compounded by the ORR-driven cuts regime and the looming threat to jobs of the McNulty Rail Review. "This prosecution does not let the ORR off the hook for its role as the driver of massive ongoing cuts and RMT repeats its call for an urgent public inquiry that establishes all the facts and which looks at the whole culture of penny-pinching and short-staffing that is prevalent on the railways,” he said. NR is facing a charge under section 3(1) of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. The ORR said that the crash occurred as a result of “the company's failure to provide and implement suitable and sufficient standards, procedures, guidance, training, tools and resources for the inspection and maintenance of fixed stretcher bar points". The stretcher bars hold the moveable rails a set distance apart when the points are operated. The first hearing is due to take place at Lancaster Magistrates' Court on February 24. NETWORK RAIL FACES GRAYRIGG PROSECUTION GREAT WESTERN FRANCHISE PRE-EMPTS MCNULTY TICKET OFFICE MASSACRE