RMT EXPOSES GREAT WESTERN ROBBERY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2013 :: RMTnews 11 R MT has warned that £1.7 billion of cuts to Network Rail budgets from 2014, announced by the Office of Rail Regulation and dressed up as "efficiency savings" , would spark off further savage cuts to jobs and maintenance - compromising safety and reliability and making a nonsense of ORR's core objectives. The union said that if the profits and subsidies sucked out of the rail system by the private train operators were instead reinvested in capacity, staffing and infrastructure , delays and cancellations would be reduced, more trains could be run, the repairs and modernisation backlog could be tackled and level crossings phased out. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that demanding £1.7 billion of cuts from Network Rail threatened jobs, maintenance and safety at a time when the railways are already short of staff and paying the price for a backlog of maintenance that leaves services at constant threat of total breakdown. "If the profits and subsidies sucked out of the railways by the private companies were instead retained within the central pot under one publicly owned rail body there would be more than enough money to employ extra staff, tackle the shelved repairs and modernisation works, phase out the lethal level crossings and increase capacity and reliability. "The government is flying in the face of all logic by retaining the shambolic and fragmented privatised rail model,” he said. R MT has exposed the hidden truth that the 23-month contract extension on First Great Western, cobbled together by the government in the wake of the franchising collapse sparked by the West Coast shambles, will cost the taxpayer £250 million in lost premium payments. A series of parliamentary answers and RMT research has dragged the core financial basis of the Great Western roll-over out of reluctant government ministers. The figures show that First will pay just £32.5 million in premiums for the 23 months of the new extension. However, the premiums of the last two years of the previous contract amounted to £279 million, revealing an astonishing £247 million loss of payments to the taxpayer over a similar period under the current deal. The figures back up the union’s claim that the franchising shambles is set to rob the British taxpayer of hundreds of millions of pounds which could have been invested in staffing, infrastructure and new fleet. It also proves that, with private train companies bullying themselves in to a monopoly provider position, franchise extensions are being awarded at the last minute, on back-of-an- envelope calculations with the companies able to fill their boots with outrageous financial demands. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that news that the rail franchising shambles was set to cost the taxpayer another quarter of billion pounds on the Great Western route came as a bitter blow to staff and passengers contending with attacks on pay and conditions and eye-watering fare increases to travel on notoriously overcrowded trains. “First Group are laughing all the way to the bank, not only did they dodge £800 million in premium payments by ducking out of the old contract early but they’ve now ended up with a rollover dropping into their laps worth a cool quarter of a billion pounds in further lost returns to the taxpayer. “This important inter-city route, starved of essential investment in capacity and staffing, has ended up as a billion pound bonanza for private company shareholders who cannot believe their luck. “The government has presided over this franchising shambles and should be called to account for their wilful financial negligence which is transferring cash needed for rail investment straight into the pockets of the train operating companies with passengers and staff left to pick up the pieces. “The case for the return of our railways to public ownership is reinforced yet again by this latest outrage,” he said. RMT EXPOSES GREAT WESTERN ROBBERY RMT WARNS THAT £1.7 BILLION RAIL CUTS WILL HAMMER JOBS AND SAFETY