On the eve of another strike by train drivers working for nine rail firms, the general secretary of their union has attacked the government – implying the deeper dispute involving Avanti West Coast is politically motivated.
As the inter-city train operator prepares to cut hundreds of services each day after Saturday’s strike, Mick Whelan, leader of Aslef, told The Independent: “I do wonder if somebody wanted to create the situation that we’re in now.”
Ministers say the sharply reduced scheduled is “unavoidable” and blames coordinated action by train drivers.
Avanti West Coast links London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, north Wales and southern Scotland.
The train operator will run no services at all on Saturday due to the drivers’ walk-out. And from Sunday, even with drivers working normally, an emergency timetable takes effect with a sharply reduced number of trains.
Normally around 400 Avanti West Coast trains per day are operated by an average of 250 drivers working on their rest days. The numbers volunteering for overtime have fallen sharply, leading to cancellations.
The biggest pre-planned cuts are on services linking Birmingham and Manchester with London – reduced by two-thirds, with one train each hour rather than three.
Avanti West Coast says it is cutting trains in advance rather than burdening passengers with last-minute cancellations.
The firm tells travellers: “This is due to the current industrial relations climate, resulting in severe staff shortages through increased sickness, as well as unofficial strike action by Aslef members.
“As a result of the majority of drivers making themselves unavailable for overtime in a co-ordinated fashion, and at short notice, our customers have faced multiple short-notice cancellations which has had a severe impact on their plans.”
That message has been echoed by the transport secretary, Grant Shapps. On 31 July, he tweeted: “UNOFFICIAL STRIKES: Passengers using Avanti West services should expect disruption today.
“Archaic rules from 1919 mean working on rest days is voluntary. Unions now stopping drivers volunteering - causing misery for public & staff who won’t get paid. We MUST modernise rail.”
But Mr Whelan furiously rejected the accusation that the refusal to work on rest days constituted unofficial industrial action.
He said: “When you lose goodwill and we go on strike, people not then coming in to work overtime is the first thing that normally happens.
“And then both Mr Shapps and the company falsely accused the union of taking unofficial industrial action because people chose not to come to work when the Lionesses were playing, F1 was on, cricket was on, the first weekend of the [football] Premiership and the other things that happened, right?
“It’s a nonsense.”
The Aslef general secretary said such assertions “recklessly endanger” union members and “put them in line for abuse” from the public.
He said: “Also, destroying the goodwill further, so they’re less likely to come in to work overtime for you, doesn’t work.
“I do wonder if somebody wanted to create the situation that we’re in now.”
He said he could not see any other reason “for the behaviour of either the companies or the government at this moment in time”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “People deserve certainty and confidence that their train will run on time, and while this move was unavoidable, it should minimise the fallout for passengers.
“This is a prime example of why we need to modernise our railways, so that passengers benefit from reliable timetables which don’t rely on the goodwill of drivers volunteering to work overtime in the first place.”
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “The reduced timetable is being introduced to ensure a reliable service is delivered so our customers can travel with greater certainty. This decision was not taken lightly, and we are sorry for the enormous frustration and inconvenience this will cause.
“We urge the rail unions to engage in meaningful industry reform discussions around modernising working practices and developing a railway fit for the 21st century and we look forward to further talks on this.”
Another inter-city company, CrossCountry, has cancelled all its trains on Saturday, while GWR and LNER will operate a skeleton service to and from their hubs at London Paddington and London King’s Cross respectively.
Five other train operators are also affected, and passengers are urged to check in advance of travel.
Further strikes will affect all rail travellers on Thursday 18 and Saturday 20 August, when members of the RMT union take industrial action. One in five trains is expected to run.
