SAVE OUR RAILWAYS CAMPAIGN BUILDS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2012 :: RMTnews 8 SAVE OUR RAILWAYS CAMPAIGN BUILDS Thousands of postcards sent to MPs against McNulty proposals to hike fares, slash staff and reduce services and safety The McNulty review paves the way for massive fare increases, of up to 30 per cent over the next three years, on what is already the most expensive rail service in Europe. It also calls for the axing of tens of thousands of railway staff, reduced safety standards, and fewer services. Earlier this month – as part of a second nationwide day of action – hundreds of RMT activists, together with ASLEF and TSSA, gave out postcards during the rush hour at some 50 train stations across Britain. The postcards, which were also delivered to every member with RMT News last month, calls on MPs to sign Early Day Motion 2299, tabled by John McDonnell, urging the government to reject the McNulty report and put the need for a decent rail system above commercial considerations. McNulty’s core proposals include: • Axing more than 600 ticket offices, de-staffing stations and turning the network into a criminals paradise. • Throwing guards off all trains and compromising safety and security on services right across the country • Jacking up fares, offering train operators even longer “gold-plated” franchises and even more opportunity to mug the travelling public • Cutting maintenance and lining up infra-structure for a return to the lethal cocktail of conditions under Railtrack that led to Hatfield and Potters Bar. McNulty ignores lessons from other railways in Europe which have lower costs and fares because they have a more unified structure than exists in Britain’s fragmented, privatised, railways. In fact McNulty even boasts that the proposals are in line with EU directives and rail packages that demand the break up and fragmentation of rail services across the EU. The EU’s recently-launched ‘recast’ 1st Railway Package aims to permanently separate wheel from steel and pave the way for the 4th Rail Package on ‘liberalising’ domestic passenger services and further privatisation of the railways in Europe. As the campaign builds over 50 MPs have signed EDM 2299, with new members continuing to add their names. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that with the government pushing back the publication of their Command Paper on McNulty there is no doubt that the campaign to stop this all out assault on rail in the interests of private profit was winning the argument.” In Scotland the day of action saw RMT members hand out postcards at stations to be sent to MSPs opposing the proposed fragmentation of the Scotrail franchise. The postcards address the Scottish government’s public consultation – Rail 2014 – and call for the retention of a single integrated rail operator for the provision of Scotrail passenger services. It also calls for the Scottish government to retain accountability and control over the railway.