FOR A GBR RAIL WORKFORCE STRATEGY

6 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2026 :: RMTnews Rail workers and industry skills leaders have called for a workforce strategy under Great British Railways (GBR), warning that fragmentation, short-term funding cycles and a narrow focus on cutting labour costs are holding back productivity across the railway. The call came after all Govia Thameslink Railway staff were the latest to be brought into direct employment after the train company came under public control. The union has been campaigning for all elements of the railway to be taken into public ownership and has welcomed the commitment by the government to launch GBR with track and train all nationalised. However, thousands of cleaners, gate line, security staff infrastructure maintenance, renewal and engineering workers, will remain employed by private contractors despite the Labour government’s commitment to undertake the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation. In a joint letter to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, RMT and the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) encouraged the government to use the creation of GBR as an opportunity to reform the industry’s approach to workforce planning, skills and productivity, including through the development of a national GBR Workforce Strategy and a regional pilot scheme. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that GBR was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a more productive, resilient and publicly accountable railway by investing in the workforce that kept it running. “For too long, productivity has been measured through a narrow focus on labour costs while ignoring the billions lost through fragmentation, outsourcing, and inefficient funding models. “Our joint work with NSAR shows that a stable, highly skilled workforce is a productive asset that drives innovation, reliability and long- term value. “The creation of GBR should be accompanied by a national workforce strategy, stronger apprenticeship opportunities, strategic planning with trade unions and a serious consideration of bringing work back in-house. “GBR provides the opportunity to end the waste of fragmentation, invest in skills and create a railway that delivers better value for passengers, workers and taxpayers alike,” he said. NSAR chief executive Neil Robertson said that the railway sector had substantial scope to improve productivity, but achieving this requires a new approach to funding the workforce. “Skills must be recognised as an investment that generates long-term value, not simply a cost to be controlled. Fragmented structures and fluctuating funding have too often undermined innovation, eroded expertise and encouraged short-term decision-making. “A productive railway depends on having the right people, with the right knowledge, in the right roles, and a whole-life-value approach to rail spending would better recognise and measure that contribution. “That is why we are jointly calling for a GBR Workforce Strategy and a Regional Pilot to put these principles into practice. The creation of GBR presents a rare, generational opportunity to reset the system, and we urge the government to seize it,” he said. TRANSITION: The government is taking over operations at the end of each operator’s contract to avoid taxpayer penalties. South Western Railway, c2c, Greater Anglia, West Midlands Trains, and now Govia Thameslink Railway - the UK’s largest railway operator which includes Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express - have been taken in-house. Chiltern Railways will be nationalised in September and Great Western Railway in December. FOR A GBR RAIL WORKFORCE STRATEGY Union joins call for a new approach to planning, skills and productivity