RMT has announced a new round of strike dates on Arriva Rail North in January 2019.
In the continued dispute over the role of guards and Driver Only Operation.
This announcement comes as Northern members gear up for the 41st day of strike action on Saturday.
Currently, the upcoming set of
- 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Saturday 22nd December 2018
- 00:01 hours and 23:59 hours on Saturday 29th December 2018
The additional dates for strikes are set to be:
- 00.01 Hours and 23.59 Hours on Saturday 5th January 2019
- 00.01 Hours and 23.59 Hours on Saturday 12th January 2019
- 00.01 Hours and 23.59 Hours on Saturday 19th January 2019
- 00.01 Hours and 23.59 Hours on Saturday 26th January 2019
What did the officials say?
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“RMT continues to make every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but the company are not interested and would prefer to call for an inquiry into the dispute to deflect attention from the impact of their behaviour on the travelling public.
“German-owned Northern Rail want to run nearly half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately.
“We thank the public for their support and understanding throughout this dispute over rail safety and access and the union remains ready for genuine and serious talks.”
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I think that a lot of passengers are going to be very angry when they realise that Northern (Really Arriva) are systematically Destroying train travel.
I live in Blackburn and for many years have been able to travel to York and beyond. Thanks to Arriva I now will have to travel to Manchester Victoria to get a train that will take me to Darlington. This is a 53 minute journey in WRONG DIRECTION before I can even begin my journey to Darlington. The outward journey takes 2 hours and 55 minutes. The return journey 3 hours and 34 minutes over the same route.and finishes with a journey of 58 minutes from Manchester to Blackburn.. Sadly this is not a surprise.I first became aware of this company in Middlewich Cheshire. They purported to run a Bus operation in that area. The buses were dirty old and unreliable. The drivers were sullen and struggled to keep to an impossible timetable. I spend a few weeks in Portmadog each year. The trains are so infrequent that you could read War and Peace while waiting for one to turn up! On the subject of Guards. The word GUARD should tell the management at Arriva what this means. I have witnessed numerous incidents of yobs abusing rail staff. They can of course phone the Transport police for help. It is interesting to note that the only time times that things get out of control is when the yobs are confronted by the police. The rail staff manage to maintain good humour and infinite patience in doing with these morons, the police seem unable to do this thus endangering Passengers. As for drivers being able to see along the length of the train, I have twice seen passengers who have slipped between the train and the platform edge rescued by the guards. I have seen a guard react to lineside attacks round the Blackburn area. A phone call and the police have been there quickly enough to avoid further delays to trains following behind. Helping disabled passengers and checking ahead for connections for passengers. These and many more jobs are done by Guards. Please stop the false economy of getting rid of Guards.Low staffing levels lead to vandalism, Drug dealing. Violent attacks on the public.We want SAFE Reliable Punctual trains. With Northern we had that . With Arriva we have NOTHING!
Actually the sooner guards are made redundant the better. Unions are trouble and now there is a resurgence in rail travel they are sniffing an opportunity to claw back some of the industrial power they lost during the Thatcher era. If we’re not careful we’ll end up with the return of the 1970’s when the country’s economy is brought to its needs by strikes.
The truth is we don’t need guards on trains anymore. Guards aren’t needed to collect tickets; you can buy them online or at a ticket booth and have your ticket or phone scanned by an automatic ticket barrier. If all remaining train stations had capital invested in them to have these barriers installed, Guards would and should be redundant in this regard.
Guards also don’t get involved in altercations on trains either. I’ve seen Byelaw safety officers board the train at random stations to fine anyone who smokes, drinks alcohol or puts their feet on the seats. More serious issues and the transport police are called in to do that nowadays. So again in this regard they’re redundant.
They’re also not needed for a health and safety matters. In this day and age when everything is CCTV’d to the hilt an extra pair of eyes aren’t needed at the back of a train. CCTV images can and are being relayed to the driver. For example electronic technology can be installed on carriages and programmed to disengage a trains gearbox from the engine moving the train if a sensor detecs door(s) still open. Yes, you might argue guards are still needed at busy city centre stations where people ignore rules and try board the train when they’re drunk, particularly at nighttime, but that problem can be solved by having platform marshalls, not guards.
So no I don’t support the RMT and the guards when they strike at all; they’re perpetually against any kind of change or progress and a throwback to the bad old days we thought we’d all left behind.
Can I ask you and give me a clue who will help disabled people in wheelchairs people who are blind onto trains at stations that are unmanned, and there is a lot of them in rural areas. I’m a volunteer that helps on Leyland station and I see first hand why a second trained person needs to be on these trains.
By the way other train companies have settled with the R.M.T over the use of guards or second person on there trains so why can’t Northern follow there example.
Northern should be stripped from its franchise. Get rid of Northern and let the government take control of the railways in the North of England.