On the Rails and Down the Tube

By New Worker correspondent

In HG Wells’ 1897 novel The War of the Worlds, the invading Martians devastated Surrey and London before being defeated not by the artillery regiments, whose shells caused little damage, but by the germs that the Martians have never encountered on their home planet. Likewise, the recent coronavirus has done more than years of campaigning by the transport unions to advance the cause of rail nationalisation.

On Monday the Daily Telegraph reported that the Rail Delivery Group, the rail industry’s trade body owned by Network Rail, HS2 Ltd and various passenger and freight operators, is in talks with the Department for Transport about how they should be bailed out as passenger numbers plummet. This has not been denied by some operators such as East Midlands Railway. The private rail companies want contracts “ripped up and replaced [with] fixed fee alternatives”, which would mean taxpayers footing the bill for the country’s rail network if the contractors flee in the face of declining revenues from people heading government advice to work from home.

So few passengers have been venturing out that the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said there was “no point running ghost trains any more than running ghost planes”.

Responding to Shapps’s comment, RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The Government must now issue cast iron guarantee that as well as protecting transport services, all transport jobs and skills, including those in the supply chain, must be protected. To achieve this government must extend public ownership to the transport sector such as expanding the government operator of last resort already in use on northern and LNER.

“In the good times the privatised operators have squandered billions in dividends instead of reinvesting in staff and services and preparing for any shocks to the transport system, but now we have a national emergency and all commercial considerations must be put aside so transport is managed solely in the national interest.”

On the same day, transport union TSSA announced it was partially suspending industrial action in a dispute about the imposition of a new pay system, which has seen five years of effective pay cuts amongst Transport for London (TfL) office workers, as a “gesture of goodwill” to the travelling public in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.

TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, said: “We recognise that Transport for London is likely to ask office workers to volunteer as ‘ambassadors’ to help give travel advice to the public.

“We expect in return that TfL will offer payments to staff who may volunteer for these shifts and, once the Coronavirus pandemic has been addressed, will come back to the negotiating table to address the concerns that gave rise to this action in the first place.”

Also on Monday, RMT demanded that TfL buck up its ideas on cleaning in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic just as it had been discovered that bosses regard Tube cleaning as a “non-core” activity unworthy of any serious attention.

The previous Tuesday, a TfL press release announced that it was launching an “enhanced cleaning regime” to “improve the already-high hygiene levels on the capital's public transport”.

The union revealed however, that TfL’s contract with cleaning outsourcing company ABM leaves it up to the company, not TfL, to decide how many cleaners are employed and how often they clean the Tube. The union points out that unlike New York, where cleaning is publicly owned, Tube bosses have no direct control over their cleaning regime response to the Coronavirus.

In response, Mike Cash said: “Let’s be clear, keeping the tube trains clean and safe should be just as important as keeping tube trains running especially with the threat of Coronavirus. The Mayor should follow the example of New York and take cleaning under direct public control alongside the rest of London Underground’s day to day activity.”