National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT)

The Guardian: November 30, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

· Leasing firms blamed for piling costs on passengers
· Investigation may delay west coast improvements

Millions of rail passengers may face an increase in overcrowded services after the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) yesterday said it planned to ask for an investigation into the market for leasing engines and carriages to train operators.

The train leasing companies warned that the proposed investigation by the Competition Commission could force them to stop investment in new vehicles, leaving a shortage of carriages to accommodate a 30% increase in passengers over the next decade.

Article continues
The Department for Transport, which reported the leasing companies to the ORR, accused the businesses of piling costs on to passengers by making profits of £175m last year.

The ORR said the £1bn-a-year cost of renting trains was contributing to fare rises. Passenger groups warned this week that fares were becoming increasing poor value for money after above-inflation price rises were announced for the fourth successive year. The cost of season tickets will rise by 4.3% next year, while unregulated fares such as long-distance tickets will increase by an average of 4.7%.

"Passenger train operators spend around £1bn every year on leasing," said Chris Bolt, chairman of the ORR. "We suspect there are features of these markets which are preventing them from operating competitively."

One of the most high-profile victims of an investigation could be the west coast main line, which is nearing the end of an £8bn upgrade but is expected to run out of capacity by 2015. Angel Trains, the supplier of Virgin's distinctive Pendolino carriages, is close to signing a deal with Virgin to build 106 carriages but that could be put on hold, threatening plans to increase services on the line by 40% in 2008.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, owner of Angel Trains, said an investigation could make overcrowding worse. "A sustained period of uncertainty is likely to curtail essential investment," it said.

The ORR will hold talks with the train leasing companies before deciding on a referral. Mr Bolt also criticised specifications written into franchise agreements by the government. A new franchise often had to re-lease the trains that were previously used within the franchise, giving the leasing companies the leverage to raise prices.

The Department for Transport said it would consider changing franchise contracts but demanded that leasing companies slash their prices: "The government believes this money would be better invested in the network to deliver further improvements for the travelling public.

"The ORR has questioned whether changes to the franchise process would help. We will be happy to explore this further during the consultation but find it difficult to see how it will have a significant impact on the current market."

See also:

Michael Harrison's Outlook: Transport ministers must take the blame for Britain's great rolling stock rip-off

The Independent: 30 November 2006

Physician, heal thyself. Or, to use a more modern idiom: Department for Transport, analyse this. In June, the department packed the country's three train leasing companies off to the Rail Regulator Chris Bolt and instructed him to establish whether they were making excessive profits. Five months later, his Office of Rail Regulation has come back with its findings, all 138 pages of them. Its report concludes that the three rolling stock companies, or Roscos, are indeed making too much money and is minded to refer them to the Competition Commission. But here's the rub. The culprit in all this is the Department for Transport itself. The main reason for the lack of competition in the rolling stock market and hence the excess profits is the way the department has drawn up the passenger rail franchises. These are very prescriptive and often stipulate which rolling stock a train operator must use. In other cases, they have no option but to use particular trains because of the type of track. In other instances, even when alternative rolling stock is available, it is owned by the same Rosco.

In its response to the ORR, the department has pretty much ignored all this and gone for the jugular, arguing that at the top end of the scale the excess profits being made by the three companies is £175m a year or £2bn over the lifetime of the leases. Put another way, that is an extra 8 per cent on a typical season ticket.

The three Roscos all happen to be owned by very large banks - HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Banco Santander - which makes them convenient whipping boys for politicians. But to argue that they are making £175m more a year than they deserve to when their total reported profits are only £165m seems absurd.

The department says that this is like comparing apples and pears because the £165m profit recorded by the Roscos is only after they have made interest payments of a similar amount back to their parent banks on the debt provided to finance their operations. Like dividends on equity, some of this represents extra profit.

The ORR now intends to consult for three months before deciding whether to make a reference to the Competition Commission. If it does, then the industry is in for a further investigation lasting up to two years.

Faced with such uncertainty, it seems inconceivable that the Roscos would make any investment in new trains during this time. That is not what passengers want to hear. Only a fortnight ago, the National Audit Office warned of a capacity crisis on the West Coast Mainline if more Pendolinos were not ordered soon.

But a two-year hiatus in rolling stock orders may be precisely what a cash-strapped Department for Transport wants to hear because new trains carry a political price in the shape of higher fares or bigger government subsidies. Or is that being too cynical? Surely not.

See also:

Government largely to blame for excess train leasing profits

The Times: November 30, 2006
Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

# Problems lie with charge for carriages
# Banks say inquiry would stall progress

Flaws in the Government’s rail franchising process are primarily to blame for excessive profits made by train leasing companies, the rail regulator said yesterday.

Chris Bolt said that he was minded to refer the companies — Porterbrook, owned by Abbey; Angel, owned by Royal Bank of Scotland; and HSBC Rail — to the Competition Commission for further investigation.

The Department for Transport, which asked Mr Bolt to investigate the companies, estimates that together they earn up to £175 million more per year than would be expected in a properly competitive market.

Mr Bolt found that the market for new trains, purchased since privatisation a decade ago, was “relatively competitive”. The main problem lay with the 9,000 carriages built by British Rail. In some cases, the construction cost has been repaid several times over, but the banks continue to charge train companies more than £1,000 a week per carriage.

The department welcomed Mr Bolt’s decision, saying that the excess profit was the “equivalent of an annual 8 per cent increase on all season tickets and amounts to around £2 billion over the lifetime of the train leases in question”.

Mr Bolt said that train companies had “extremely limited” choice over rolling stock when negotiating franchises. In many cases they were contractually bound to take on leases agreed by the previous incumbent. The Department for Transport also set tight specifications that could be met only by leasing a particular type of train.

The rapid growth in demand for rail services also meant that there was a very small pool of spare trains, with only 6 per cent of the national fleet in storage at present.

The regulator’s report said that possible remedies included a “major rethink of the franchising model, allowing train companies to take their commercial decisions for new rolling stock based purely on their own assessment of future revenue needs and the needs of the passenger”.

Mr Bolt said that franchises could also be lengthened to give train companies enough incentive to order new trains. Groups of franchises could be let at the same time to make it easier to switch trains from one company to another. He said that other options, such as imposing price controls or requiring the banks to sell some of their trains, would be difficult to implement and might not achieve value for money.

Mr Bolt will consult until the end of February and make a final decision on a Competition Commission inquiry by the end of April.

RBS said that there was no case for further investigation, adding: “If, as the report indicates, it is the DfT’s own franchising policy which is principally responsible for the matters about which it has complained, the DfT has the remedy for this in its own hands.”

RBS also issued a thinly veiled threat that it would not purchase any more trains if there was a full competition inquiry, which could take up to two years. This would undermine Virgin’s plans to order 100 new carriages from Angel to lengthen its overcrowded tilting trains on the West Coast Main Line.

RBS said: “A sustained period of uncertainty is likely to curtail essential investment in additional capacity to solve the evident overcrowding problem in Britain’s railways.”

Mr Bolt said that if the companies refused to buy new trains, it would be a sign that the market was not competitive. “If they were to withdraw from financing new rolling stock, that’s clearly a factor the Competition Commission would be looking at.”

Timetable
# 1994 Railtrack takes control of tracks

# 1995 franchises awarded

# 1996: Railtrack’s debut raises £1.9 billion

# 1997: Seven people die in Southall crash

# 1999: 31 die at Ladbroke Grove

# 2000: Four die at Hatfield

# 2002: Seven die at Potters Bar

# 2002: Railtrack replaced by Network Rail

# June 2006: DfT tells Office of Rail Regulation that train leasing prices are unfair. Requests referral to Competition Commission

# November 2006: Regulator announces three-month consultation over referral to Commission

Posted on 11:17 AM | Permalink

The Times: November 29, 2006
Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

# Increases are above inflation for fourth year
# Passenger group says poor will shun railways

The railways are becoming the preserve of the rich, after train companies announced fare increases above the rate of inflation for the fourth year running, the national passenger watchdog said yesterday.

Passengers will pay up to 11 per cent more from January 2, with those unable to book in advance bearing the brunt of the increases. Most season tickets and off-peak tickets, prices for which are set by the Government, will rise by 4.3 per cent, 1 per cent above inflation.

Passenger Focus said that the Government was largely to blame because it set the overall strategy for the railways and was increasing payments for the right to operate franchises. Four companies have each agreed to pay more than £1 billion to the Department for Transport over the next ten years.

The total amount paid each year by passengers has doubled to £4.5 billion since privatisation a decade ago. Subsidy has also soared to record levels, with the taxpayer contributing more than £6 billion this year, four times what British Rail received.

Passengers in Kent will pay the highest increases, with season tickets rising by 6.3 per cent and standard day returns rising by up to 11.1 per cent.

First Great Western is raising fares for the second time in a year on services between London, the West Country and South Wales. After the 6 per cent increases First Great Western imposed in June, standard open returns will rise by another 6 per cent in January.

Virgin is increasing its standard open return from London to Manchester by 8.4 per cent, more than double the rate of inflation. This means passengers will be paying £50 an hour for the journey.

The standard open return is the only ticket available on the day for several hours when trains are busiest.

A recent Department for Transport study found that people on higher incomes were twice as likely to use trains. Only 40 per cent of those earning less than £13,500 made a train journey last year, compared with 77 per cent earning more than £31,200.

Anthony Smith, the chief executive of Passenger Focus, said: “The network is becoming a rich man’s railway. Many families can no longer afford to travel by train unless they are super-organised about booking tickets and have a railcard.”

He predicted that next year the train companies would place more restrictions on when saver tickets could be used. The price of savers is usually less than half the cost of a standard open return.

Passenger Focus also accused train companies of breaching their own rules by introducing the increases immediately, instead of using the old prices for journeys if they were booked before Christmas Eve.

The Association of Train Operating Companies said that fare increases were needed to pay for improvements such as the refurbishment of First Great Western’s 30-year-old 125mph trains, and for thousands of CCTV cameras.

Punctuality rose to 89.5 per cent in the six months to September 30, helped partly by lengthening published journey times by a few minutes.

Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “We have inflation-busting fare increases at a time when trains are becoming more and more overcrowded, and absolutely nothing is being done to tackle the problem.”

London to Manchester: cost of a Virgin standard open return

1997: £108

Jan2, 2007: £219

See also:

New Year rail fares set to rocket

Press Association: November 28, 2006

Millions of rail passengers will face above-inflation fare rises in the new year, with some tickets going up more than 7%, it has been announced.

Regulated fares, comprising season tickets and saver fares, will rise 4.3% on average from January 2. Unregulated fares, which represent about 60% of total fares, will be going up by an average of 4.7%.

Unregulated fares on the both the Gatwick Express and the Heathrow Express will be rising an average of 7.3%, while unregulated fares on Virgin West Coast will be increasing by an average of 6.6%, the Association of Train Operating Companies (Atoc) announced.

There will also be big rises for commuters on the Southeastern franchise, where a special agreement means an average rise in regulated fares of 6.3%. A cheap day return from London to Canterbury on Southeastern is rising 6% - from the current £18.40 to £19.50, while a standard day return on the same route is increasing 11.1% from £19.90 to £22.10.

Atoc director-general George Muir said: "While no-one likes to pay more for their travel, we need the revenue to pay for the ongoing improvements to the railways that passengers expect - and overall satisfaction levels are now at an all-time high of 80%.

"Train operators will continue to raise their game, delivering further improvements to the railway and enhancing the travel experience of passengers. Rail travel is proving very popular, with more passengers travelling this year. The challenge now is to get extra capacity on to the railway and route plans are under way to this end."

Brian Cooke, chairman of passenger group London TravelWatch, said: "While we accept fares have to rise sometimes, any price rise above inflation is regrettable and will seem a lot to passengers in and around London who are increasingly faced with crowded platforms and trains. Most train companies on the busy commuter lines in London are now paying the Government huge premiums, so are being forced to put up fares to a level that is extremely bad news for passengers, meaning effectively that many rail passengers in London are paying a stealth tax to the Government as part of their fare."

Anthony Smith, chief executive of independent consumer watchdog Passenger Focus, said: "If passengers want flexibility or have no choice about when to travel, they now face off-putting prices. Levels of crowding now mean there is no more room for manoeuvre - people are being priced off the railways just as the off-peak is also becoming crowded."

Shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is very unwelcome news for passengers and will only underline the fact that things are really not right on our railways. We have inflation-busting fare increases at a time when trains are becoming more and more overcrowded and absolutely nothing is being done to tackle the problem."

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: "Passengers will be exasperated by these fare increases, whilst levels of overcrowding on their trains continue to get worse. If the Government wants people to use public transport, then it is sending the wrong signal by increasing the price gap between rail and car travel."

Posted on 02:21 AM | Permalink

Bloomberg: Nov. 28
By Catherine Hickley

The architect of Berlin's new main train station won a lawsuit against Deutsche Bahn AG in a court decision that forces the German state-owned rail company to replace the building's ceiling with his original design.

Architect Meinhard von Gerkan sued Deutsche Bahn for distorting his plan by exchanging his ceiling, designed to resemble a cathedral's nave, for one made of flat metal designed by another architect. German copyright rules protect the integrity of work by artists and architects.

"We are very happy about this decision,'' said Juergen Hillmer, a partner in von Gerkan's firm, speaking by mobile phone from the main station. "It means this current ceiling will be torn down and replaced.''

The $840 million station, the biggest non-terminus rail hub in Europe, is located in the wasteland left behind after the fall of the Berlin Wall, meters away from Angela Merkel's Chancellery. Its completion, in time for the June start of the World Cup soccer tournament, capped 15 years of rebuilding to unite the separate infrastructures of east and west Berlin.

"The chamber is of the opinion that the flat ceiling seriously distorted the architectural design,'' the Berlin regional court said in a statement. Deutsche Bahn's one-sided decision to change the plan without consulting von Gerkan "is a breach of architects' rights as set out in the copyright law,'' the court said.

Massive Disruption

Deutsche Bahn said in an e-mailed statement that it will challenge the Berlin court's ruling. The station handles 300,000 passengers a day and 1,100 trains, and tearing the ceiling down would create a massive disruption of traffic, Norbert Giersdorff, a spokesman for the company, said in a telephone interview.

"Deutsche Bahn urged the architect in vain to reduce costs before the flat ceiling was built,'' the company statement said, vowing "further legal action.''

Von Gerkan previously described the dispute over the railway station as the bitterest of his 40-year career.

Before changing his ceiling design, Deutsche Bahn had forced him to slice 100 meters off a steel-and-glass roof overarching the tracks, making the station asymmetrical when viewed from a distance, rather than symmetrical as it was in von Gerkan's plan.

Posted on 01:33 AM | Permalink

International Transport Workers' Federation: 23 Nov 2006

Mansour Osanloo, the president of the Tehran bus workers' union who was released in August 2006 after 8 months in detention, was re-arrested on 19th November by Iranian security officials.
Protest against the re-arrest of Manour Osanloo by clicking on the link below.
Take Action: Send a Protest Letter

Osanloo was with two colleagues on his way to the Ministry of Labour in Tehran when he was approached by plain clothes security agents, who told him he was under arrest. When Osanloo asked for a warrant he was beaten, threated with a gun and forced into a car.

The ITF, the ITUC and others in the international trade union movement have written protesting against this latest arrest - see below. We are now asking ITF affiliates to send similar messages, using the link above. You can also do this by visiting the Labourstart website.

Iran: Free Mansour Osanloo now

Mansour Osanloo, the President of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed) was arrested by plain clothes agents, who refused to show any identification or arrest warrants, on Sunday, November 19, 2006 while he, along with two other union board members, were on their way to the office of the Labour Ministry in Tehran East. The agents physically and verbally assaulted Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, the union's vice-president, and one of them pointed a gun at Mr. Madadi and fired a bullet in the air. The agents finally forced Mr. Osanloo into a waiting car and drove away.

Mansour Osanloo.

Osanloo, who had an eye operation last week and whose eye was bandaged at time of his arrest, was summoned to attend a court hearing on November 20, 2006. In December 2005, Mr. Osanloo was arrested following a job action by members of his union. He was released on 150 million Toman (about $US 165,000) bail after about 8 months in Tehran's Evin prison.

In addition, according to the latest news, Mahmoud Salehi, the former President of the Bakery Workers' Association of the city of Saqez and a co-founder of the Coordinating Committee to Form Worker's Organization, has been sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. Jalal Hosseini, a labour activist in the city of Saqez and an executive board member of the Coordinating Committee to Form Worker's Organization in the Western Iran, was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. Borhan Divargar, another labour activists arrested on May Day 2004, was earlier sentenced to two years in prison. The initial arrests and the final charges against the above labour activists were made in connection with their attempts to participate in May Day 2004 celebration in Saqez.

Posted on 10:15 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 28 2006

SEA CONTAINERS should not be rewarded with public money for effectively defaulting on its GNER contract, Britain’s biggest rail union said today.

Sea Containers' diastrous tenure had destabilised a key part of Britain's railway network, and it should now be run in the public sector to safeguard jobs and rail services, RMT said.

"Our members will be shedding no crocodile tears over Sea Containers appearing to be on their way out, but they now deserve some guarantees that GNER's plans to slash staff across the franchise will not be allowed to proceed," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"It makes no sense to allow Sea Containers to continue draining what amount to guaranteed, risk-free profits out of GNER on a management-fee contract when the franchise could be run more efficiently and for everyone's benefit in the public sector.

"The government was adamant that it would not renegotiate the GNER franchise, but that is what they have now done.

"How much better it would be simply to bring GNER operations back in-house and harnesss the revenue for the benefit of the whole industry.

"Refranchising will cost millions for the paperwork alone, and the end result will be another privateer given a licence to drain public money out of the railway industry.

"Other privateers looking at the GNER mess will be grinning up their sleeves in the knowledge that if they get into financial difficulties they too will be bailed out with public money and rewarded with a cushy cost-plus management contract.

"Three of the country's main intercity franchises are now being run on cost-plus contracts which just shovel public money into private bank accounts for no good reason, and makes a complete nonsense of the entire franchising policy," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 11:59 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 28 2006

ABOVE-INFLATION rail-fare increases announced today will drive more people off trains and into cars, Britain’s biggest rail union says today as the private train operators announced their latest round of price hikes.

"The government talks about the climate challenge and the importance of reducing carbon emissions, but allowing never-ending above-inflation rail fares rises will only result in more polluting road traffic," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"It is only a six months since the Commons Transport Select Committee condemned the shambolic state of rail pricing structures and exposed the private sector's inability to operate the railways as a public service.

"Since then we have also had the stark warnings in the Stern report, but it seems it is to be 'big business as usual' for the private train operators.

"A fundamental shift in policy is needed that will use fares policy to encourage rail use and recognise that there needs to be substantial public investment in new rail capacity.

"Increasing capacity doesn't mean ripping out a few seats and removing passenger toilets to squeeze in a few more standing commuters.

"We need a fares and ticketing structure designed to encourage people out of their cars and onto trains and a joined-up transport policy capable of delivering extra capacity to cope with the extra demand.

"Britain's rail fares are already among the most expensive in Europe, and the privateers who run them are interested only in maximising profits from travellers.

"As long as they are allowed to continue in this vein the government will be unable to meet its commitment to reduce carbon emissions," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 11:56 PM | Permalink

JOIN THE PUBLIC PROTEST AGAINST 20% CUTS TO TRAIN SERVICES IN BRISTOL AND THE WEST
(organised by RMT Bristol Rail)

Friday, 8 December 2006
Meet: 3.30-4.00 pm
Brunel Shed Car Park, Bristol Temple Meads (next to Travel Centre)

Join:

Kerry McCarthy MP (Bristol East)
Pat Sikorski, Assistant General Secretary(RMT)
Nigel Costley, Secretary, South West TUC

Walk: 4.15-4.30pm
Walk with us to the Government Office for the South West,
to deliver our protest, or meet us there at 4.30pm (2, Rivergate, Temple Quay)

From 11 December 2006 First Great Western will cut train seats in Greater Bristol by 1,839 per day - 20%. Trains will be cut from 69 to 57 - over 18%.

Local trains are already at full capacity. Passengers complain of uncomfortable and alarming overcrowding, and rail staff have raised safety issues. Further cuts will force passengers onto congested roads, increasing pollution and road traffic accidents.

These drastic cuts will increase carbon emissions, flying in the face of the Stern Report. Government has already set challenging targets to cut carbon emissions - 20% by 2010 and 60% by 2050. Transport accounts for 25% of all UK carbon emissions - the vast majority produced by road transport. These cuts threaten environmentally friendly transport.

Train service cuts affecting Bristol and surrounding areas include:
• loss of early morning Cardiff-Bristol service;
• two-hour gaps at Oldfield Park, Keynsham and Patchway;
• reduced peak period services at Keynsham, Bedminster, Parson Street and Weston Milton;
• loss of early services between Bristol, Yate and Gloucester and late evening services at Yate, Cam and Dursley, Gloucester and Patchway;
• irregular intervals between trains from Bristol, Weston-super-Mare and Taunton, plus loss of connectivity on trains to/from London

Published by Bristol Rail Branch RMT - www.bristolrail.org.uk
Download document version here Download file

Posted on 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

RMT: November 27 2006

BRINGING RAIL maintenance back-in-house has played a major role in Network Rail’s efficiency gains, and the same medicine should be administered to track renewals, Britain’s biggest rail union says today.

"It is good news that the operating profit made by Network Rail will be ploughed back into the industry rather than disappear into shareholders' pockets - it's a pity that can't also be said of train operations," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.

"A huge contribution to NR's efficiencies has been the decision to bring maintenance back in-house, and it would make sense to complete that job and bring renewals work back in house too.

"There will now be speculation about bonuses, and we would hope after the controversy of the last few years that it is the people who get out there and deliver the work who will reap the rewards.

"Network Rail is far from perfect, but today's figures underline what could be achieved if the disastrous PPP on London Underground was scrapped - and it underlines the need to keep the East London Line's operations out of the privateers' hands," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 10:20 PM | Permalink

The Times: November 27, 2006
Robin Pagnamenta

The Government has agreed to tear up GNER’s £1.3 billion franchise agreement to operate the East Coast main line railway, The Times has learnt.

The Department for Transport has decided to re-let the franchise, but as a temporary solution will allow GNER to continue to run it for up to two years on a new, fixed-management-contract basis.

The decision to allow GNER to continue to operate the franchise is bound to stoke anger from other UK rail operators facing similar pressures.

Talks are under way between the DfT and GNER’s bankrupt parent Sea Containers to agree the terms of the new arrangement. It is expected to run for between 18 and 24 months until a new invitation to tender can be produced and a train operating company selected.

An agreement with GNER is expected shortly because the company’s financial situation is unsustainable under the terms of the current franchise, for which Christopher Garnett, GNER’s former chief executive, admitted the group had overbid. GNER is understood to be perilously close to being in breach of its liquidity ratio, the amount of cash that it is legally required to retain to honour its franchise agreement.

“It’s a fix,” one rail industry source said. “It is at least one year’s work to write the invitation to tender and complete the bidding process and the Government would prefer a negotiated solution than to take the franchise back by force.”

The Government has stated repeatedly that it does not renegotiate rail franchises as a matter of policy.

A spokeswoman for Sea Containers said that negotiations were “commercially confidential” and a range of options were under consideration. She declined further comment.

Posted on 09:52 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 25 November 2006

Private security guards are to ride trains in the north of England to crack down on the abuse of rail staff.

Security guards are to patrol rail routes with a history of trouble

The action follows more than 300 incidents of abuse and assault on Northern Rail staff so far this year.

Rail union RMT says some of its members have been kicked in the head, punched in the face and so badly assaulted that they have taken weeks off work.

Northern Rail says it takes the problem extremely seriously and is employing security staff for problematic routes.

Northern Rail area director Malcom Brown said the guards were being introiduced on services from Leeds to Skipton, Bradford and Manchester.

Some rail staff have suffered verbal abuse, threats of violence and have been spat at by passengers.

Broken jaw

According to the RMT, the incidents of assaults and abuse across the rail network doubled from 2001 to 2005.

So far this year there have been more than 5,000 reported incidents.

A conductor, who had his jaw broken in two places when he was punched by a drunk man who he tried to bar from entering a train, told the BBC was a "very aggressive" and "very violent situation".

The conductor was forced to take two months off work as a result of his injury and had a titanium plate inserted into his bottom jaw.

The new security teams are supported by British Transport Police as a highly visible, reassuring presence to the travelling public" - Det Insp Andrea Rainey

RMT's general secretary Bob Crow said: "The statistics tell the sorry story of more and more violence against railway staff, particularly late at night and at weekends, and our members are telling Northern Trains that they have reached the end of the line."

"We will work with anyone who can help stop the violence - but Northern Rail really do not have the option of failing to respond positively to this campaign."

Stan Herschell - the regional organiser for the North East RMT - described the new strategy as a "negative response".

"Putting bouncers on tends to attract the trouble as opposed to taking it away," he told BBC Radio Five Live.

"I think it just gives the yobs who are travelling a different target - they have a go at the bouncers.

'Highly visible'

"Yes, they may leave my staff alone, but it's just moving the problem from one place to another."

British Transport Police (BTP) have welcomed the use of security staff.

Det Insp Andrea Rainey has worked closely with Northern on the implementation of the new teams.

He said: "The new security teams are supported by British Transport Police as a highly visible, reassuring presence to the travelling public on Northern routes.

"We hope that their presence on Northern trains will have a positive effect in preventing anti-social behaviour and low-level crime."

See also:

Train guards to protect rail staff

Press Association: November 25, 2006

Private security guards are to travel on trains in the north of England to crack down on the abuse of rail staff.

The BBC reports that the action follows more than 300 incidents of abuse and assault on Northern Rail staff so far this year.

Rail union RMT says some of its members have been kicked in the head, punched in the face and so badly assaulted that they have taken weeks off work.

Northern Rail says it takes the problem extremely seriously and is employing security staff for problematic routes.

Some rail staff have suffered verbal abuse, threats of violence and have been spat at by passengers.

According to the RMT, the incidents of assaults and abuse across the rail network doubled from 2001 to 2005.

So far this year there have been more than 5,000 reported incidents.

Posted on 09:41 AM | Permalink

RMT: 24 November 2006

LIFELONG LONDON underground worker John Leach has been elected president of RMT for the next three years after beating four other candidates for the post in a postal ballot.

John, at 39 the union's youngest president for many years, will succeed Tony Donaghey when his three-year term as president ends at the turn of the year.

"John has served twice on the RMT executive and is an experienced and respected trade unionist and I am sure he will make an excellent president," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

In other executive elections, Alex Gordon was elected unopposed to represent South Wales and West, Peter Gale was elected to represent the South West, Dave Gott was elected to represent Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and Robert Potts was elected to represent the North East.

In addition, Peter Trend was elected to serve as the union's full-time second northern relief organiser.

ends

Note for editors: John Leach is currently a member of the RMT executive, representing members in the London region, and worked for London Underground most recently as a station supervisor.

The final result, after the redistribution of the votes cast for the three eliminated candidates, was: John Leach 6,865 Ray Knight 5,141.

Posted on 05:41 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 24 2006

TRADE UNIONISTS campaigning to keep the East London Line in public hands have today welcomed the parliamentary call by six London Labour MPs for the line to remain operated by the public sector when it reopens, after extension, in 2010.

The six MPs - Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Kate Hoey, Harry Cohen, Neil Gerrard and John Austsin- have today tabled a fresh motion calling on the mayor of London and TfL to drop plans to hand East London Line operations to one of four private contractors already shortlisted - see text below.

The MPs' move was today welcomed by RMT, TSSA and the TUC's southern and eastern region.

"There is already massive support for our joint campaign to keep the private sector out of the Tube's operations, and three quarters of people in London and the southeast agree that the East London Line should be kept public," noted RMT general secretary Bob Crow

"The extension and upgrade of the East London Line will be good for London, but in the light of the Tube chaos caused by private contractors there can be no doubt that placing its operations in private hands would be a huge mistake," said TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty.

"The TUC is fully behind the campaign to keep the East London Line's operations in the public sector, and it can be done," added SERTUC seceretary Megan Dobney

RMT and TSSA members will tomorrow lobby the London Labour Party Conference, and the unions' general secretaries are urging delegates to support the campaign to keep the private sector out of Tube operations.

Delegates will also be urged to attend a lunch-time fringe rally to be addressed by RMT general secretary Bob Crow, TSSA assistant general secretary Manuel Cortes and Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn.

RMT, TSSA and SERTUC have already written to elected representatives throughout London, as well as TfL board members, urging them to raise concerns over the planned privatisation with the mayor.

ends

EDM, tabled by Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, Kate Hoey, Harry Cohen, Neil Gerrard and John Austin

That this House welcomes the important role that London Underground East London Line extension will play in creating a world class transport infrastructure in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games; further notes that the East London line is currently operated in the public sector by London Underground; is concerned that there are proposals to transfer responsibility for operating the line to the private sector which would represent the first privatisation of a tube passenger service; believes that the benefits of an extended East London Line will be best achieved by the service remaining wholly in the public sector; notes the IPOS/ MORI poll showing that three quarters of people in London and the South East want the East London Line operations kept in the public sector; welcomes the decision of the 2006 TUC Congress opposing the privatisation of the East London Line and supports the rail unions and TUC campaign to keep the East London Line wholly in the public sector.

East LondonLine - briefing for journalists

October 2006

The East London Line, used by 10.4 million passengers a year, is part of the London Underground network. The line currently runs between Whitechapel to New Cross and New Cross Gate.

In December 2007 the line will close in order that Phase 1 of the East London Line Extension project can be completed. The line will extend north into Hackney and south to West Croydon, and is due to re-open in 2010.

The unions welcome the important role that the extension will play in creating a world-class transport infrastructure in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, but we strongly believe that the needs of London will be better served by the line remaining in the public sector.

However, the body responsible for the East London Line Extension project - Transport for London (TfL) - proposes that the Line will no longer be operated by the publicly owned London Underground Limited but will instead be privatised to become part of the North London Railway (NLR) concession.

The concession will be comprised of the current Silverlink Metro services: the North London, Gospel Oak to Barking Line, the West London Line and the Euston to Watford Junction local services.

A short list of bidders has been drawn up and issued with Invitations to Tender - National Express, Govia, MTR Laing and NedRail. So far no public consultation on the privatisation plans has taken place. Additionally the Invitations to Tender are not in the public domain and bidders have been directed not to divulge what thay are being asked to bid for in terms of service and staff levels. Rail unions RMT and TSSA have complained to London Rail over the absence of consultation over the plan and the lack of transparency surrounding the process.

TfL's partial justification for the privatisation is that it wishes to link the East London Line with the current Silverlink Metro services that come under TfL control from November 2007. The whole package will be led by the TfL-controlled London Rail. However there is no physical, technical or legal reason why this cannot be done by retaining the East London Line within London Underground control.

TfL have also attempted to give the impression that the line was always to be franchised out to the private sector, but this is simply not the case. The decision to make the Passenger Service Operator a private-sector company was made only in April this year. Indeed, the are ample internal documents that show clearly that senior LUL managers were hoping that the line's operations would remain within LUL and was still in the running to be PSO as recently as March.

TfL also says that their proposal is not really privatisation, given that the infrastructure would be owned by TfL and that specification of service levels, fares, staffing etc would also remain with TfL. However, the services will be operated by a private-sector franchisee whose main aim will be to make a profit, and the operational staff will be employed by that private operator - a situation similar to the private train-operating companies, who are also subject to franchise specification and who also do not own rolling stock or infrastructure.

There is real and strong disagreement with the Mayor's proposals. Opposition to the privatisation of rail services is fully supported opinion polls and TUC and Labour Party policy. In September 2006 the TUC Congress passsed a motion opposing the privatisation of the East London Line, and the most recent opinion poll, conducted by IPSOS Mori in August 2006, showed that 74 per cent wanted the ELL operated by the public sector.

A number of London MPs have already signed Early Day Motion 2398 supporting the campaign against privatisation. Privately, senior London Underground managers are also opposed to proposals.

Private train operators have been a disaster for Britain's railways. While subsidy and profits have increased, services remain worse than those provided under public ownership. This mistake should not be repeated with the East London Line. We want all public subsidy and fare-box revenue spent on improvements to train services, not siphoned out of the network as profit for greedy train operators.

The Public Private Partnership on the London Underground has already created a fragmented network with frequent service disruptions caused by late running engineering works. It also sees around £2 million a week taken out of the network as 'profit' by underperforming Any moves to privatise the East London Line will exacerbate that fragmentation.

There may be a view that this is a one-off privatisation of Underground passenger operations. However the proposals could be the thin edge of the wedge. If the East London Line is privatised it would inevitably become easier to argue that privatisation of tube passenger services could be extended to other lines.

Posted on 05:34 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 24 2006

MARITIME UNION RMT has joined Irish sister union SIPTU in calling for an urgent investigation into all ferry and ro-ro vessels trading in the Irish Sea after an international Transport Workers’ Federation inspector today discovered workers on rates as low as €2 an hour.

ITF Inspector Ken Fleming boarded the ro-ro ferry Merchant Bravery this morning in the portof Dublin, at the invitation of ratings who said they had not been paid for more than four months.

The ITF has gathered evidence that 'double bookkeeping' was employed on the vessel, operated by Maersk subsidiary Norfolk Line between between Heysham and Dublin, and is acting to recover all the crews' wages and report its findings to the appropriate maritime authorities.

The 22 crewmembers on the Jamaican-flagged vessel are a mixture of Polish, Ukrainian and Russian seafarers.

The ITF found one able seaman who should have been earning around $3,200 a month, in accordance with his first contract of employment, was only being paid around $1,000 for 365-plus hours a month - or just over €2 an hour - on a second contract of employment.

Another rating who should have been earning $1,984 on one contract of was being paid only $850 on his second contract.

"This is what we call 'double book-keeping'," said ITF inspector Ken Fleming.

"It appears that the hours of work regulations are being abused on a daily basis and there is also a question mark over false certificates of competency. Further investigation by the ITF will follow."

He added that the ITF was considering the lawful arrest of the vessel on behalf of the crew members to reclaim wages in accordance with their first contract.

SIPTU and RMT, who have been campaigning jointly against 'social dumping' in the Irish Sea, are demanding the fullest investigation by the Irish and UK maritime authorities on all ferry and ro-ro vessels trading in the Irish sea.

"This is the shocking reality of social dumping, with crews employed in UK waters being paid at rates well below the minimum wage, and that is why we need urgent action to ensure that shipowners can no longer evade minimum employment standards," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"This is another example of the detrimental impact of unfettered global capital on weak and vulnerable people," said SIPTU general president Jack O'Connor, who also called for immediate action in accordance with international law to rectify the injustice and ensure that at the very least a minimum threshold of decency is applied in the case of these seafarers.

ends

Notes to editors: RMT is working alongside maritime unions in Ireland, Belgium, France and the Netherlands to end 'social dumping' in which unionised crews are replaced with super-exploited, unorganised overseas labour employed on rates often below minimum-wage levels and working dangerously long hours.

In Britain the union is calling for an end to the exemption of shipowners from the Race Relations Act that allows them to continue discriminating with impunity.

RMT is also campaigning for the Tonnage Tax, under which shipowners receive millions in tax relief simply for setting up an operational base in the UK, to be made conditional on providing training and jobs for UK ratings.

Posted on 04:38 PM | Permalink

Bradford Telegraph & Argus: 22nd November 2006
By Jenny Loweth

An angry rail worker has told of the fear stalking his colleagues after a conductor was viciously attacked at a station.

Forster Square railway station in Bradford, scene of an attack which left a railway conductor injured

The senior union representative, who works as a conductor on the same line, said 1,000 Northern Rail staff had signed a petition demanding urgent action on safety.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union spokesman said rail staff felt harassed, undervalued and afraid after the middle-aged conductor was punched repeatedly in the face at Keighley station.

He told how graphic photos of his injuries were being circulated by rail workers on their company mobile phones as a warning to colleagues.
continued...

The union spokesman said: "This was an appallingly vicious attack.

"I have a photo on my phone. His face on one side is all black and blue and he has cuts under his eyes. It is a real mess."

The union representative cannot be publicly identified because of company policy. But he said yesterday: "He is seriously traumatised - and so are his colleagues."

The conductor needed hospital treatment and is still off work.

As previously reported, he was assaulted after a ticket dispute with five passengers on the 10.06pm service from Bradford Forster Square to Skipton on Monday, November 13. Northern Rail is offering a £1,000 reward for information leading to a successful arrest and conviction.

The union spokesman said the attack followed a similar serious assault on a conductor at Guiseley last year.

He claimed that the railway network between Skipton, Leeds and Bradford was a blackspot for attacks on staff.

"Every train that runs on that line after 6pm is a potential problem," he said.

He said that of the 1,100 conductors on Northern Rail, up to 800 had already signed the petition.

It demands an increase in staff numbers on trains and at stations, keeping stations open until the last train has gone, more use of British Transport Police and that Northern Rail managers work weekends to co-ordinate resources.

Union members also want "dry trains" on some routes and manned barriers so that people who have had too much to drink are barred from getting on trains.

And he fears an escalation of violence in the run-up to Christmas.

He said: "It might be the season of goodwill for other people but for our staff it heralds a time of harassment, threats and violence."

The RMT union says that, nationally, physical assaults, threats and verbal abuse on staff have more than doubled between 2001 and last year to more than 4,700.

There has been a further increase this year to more than 5,000 incidents, leading to union calls for a zero tolerance approach to violence.

Malcolm Brown, area director of Northern Rail, said: "The safety and well-being of our staff and customers is of paramount importance to us at Northern that is why we have a zero tolerance policy towards anti-social, abusive and criminal behaviour on our network.

"Our staff have the right to carry out their duties without fear of abuse and we will not tolerate anyone who threatens their safety.

"I would urge anyone with any information on last Monday's vicious assault to contact the British Transport Police."

A spokesman for British Transport Police said that in response to concerns by Northern Rail staff a senior officer had been seconded to the company since February.

High profile patrols were operating on some services to support rail staff.

Rail security teams are employed on Airedale line by Northern to combat violence.

Three teams of two-strong patrols are providing support to staff and passengers at stations and on board trains.

Anyone with any information about the attack should call British Transport Police on 0800 405040 or (0113) 2436686.

Posted on 08:56 AM | Permalink

Chinaview: Nov. 23, 2006

BEIJING -- China will invest 1.5 trillion yuan ($190 billion U.S. dollars=£98 billion sterling) to increase the nation's rail network to over 90,000 kilometers by 2010.

"We will invest 300 billion yuan ($38 billion dollars=£19.65 billion) in railway construction next year," Li Guoyong, transportation director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said yesterday at the China Railway Financing Forum.

The investment, described by Li as "the biggest in China's history," would increase the size of China's rail network by almost 20 percent.

The 1.5 trillion yuan ($190 billion dollars=£98 billion) investment includes 250 billion yuan ($31.6 billion dollars=£16.35 billion) for vehicle purchasing, over 600 billion yuan ($76 billion dollars=£39.34 billion) for railway lines and over 625 billion yuan ($79 billion dollars=£40.91 billion) for civil engineering.

China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) states that solving hardware problems, such as the network and machinery, are the core issues for the development of the nation's railways.

"The transportation turnover rate for railways will double with the completion of main trunk lines in 2010," said Long Hua, an analyst from Industrial Securities Co.

"The railway industry's boom is expected to last over 10 years."

Slow and relatively poor-quality services and busy trunk lines remain the major problems confronting China's rail industry.

A lack of services will remain a problem in 2010, but the Ministry of Railways expects this to be solved by 2015.

"We plan to set up an inter-city passenger transportation express, which will reach a speed of at least 200 kilometers per hour," said Li.

Posted on 08:41 AM | Permalink

Yorkshire Post: 23 November 2006
William Green, Political Correspondent

A SUBSTANTIAL increase in trains between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire is on the way after the Government yesterday pledged £2m a year for extra services.

Seven services currently run daily between Sheffield and Nottingham, two of which extend to Leeds, but that number will rise to 28 – 14 each way – from December 2008.

All trains are expected to call hourly at Wakefield Kirkgate, Barnsley, Meadowhall, Sheffield, Chesterfield and Alfreton, with many stopping at Dronfield and Langley Mill.

The services will be run by operator Northern Rail and will be in addition to the existing semi-fast route between Leeds and Sheffield via Barnsley.

Rail Minister Tom Harris said: "This is good news for passengers in Leeds and Nottingham who will benefit from a fourfold increase in services. It will mean more capacity at busy times, more seats for passengers and will develop transport links between these important cities."

Northern Rail said it was an excellent opportunity to build on growth.

Posted on 08:32 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 23 November 2006

MSPs have supported proposals for a major project to reopen the railway line between Airdrie to Bathgate.

Network Rail expressed delight at the decision by MSPs

The £300m scheme will include an upgrade of the links between North Lanarkshire and West Lothian and the construction of two stations by 2010.

There has been cross-party support for the plans, with an ambition to draw more businesses to the central belt.

The line, which would carry four services an hour between Edinburgh and Glasgow, has been closed for 50 years.

Phil Gallie, convener of the Airdrie-Bathgate Railway Bill Committee, said the link would create more than 1,500 new jobs and ease congestion in both cities by offering an alternative to the M8.

"Physically this is a railway for the communities of the Airdrie/Bathgate railway corridor but its benefits go far beyond those areas," the South of Scotland MSP said.

The plans outlined in the Airdrie-Bathgate Railway and Linked Improvements Bill include new stations at Armadale and Caldercruix, relocated stations at Bathgate and Drumgelloch and upgraded stations at Livingston North, Uphall and Airdrie.

Having passed the preliminary stage, the bill will be considered again in January.

"The more people we can get on the trains the better for the congestion on the M8" - David Davidson MSP, Tory transport spokesman

Mr Gallie insisted that accessibility to stations by cycle path and bus would be essential.

However, he said more must be done to ensure integrated bus services and expressed doubt that sufficient funding had been earmarked to help.

Transport Minister Tavish Scott gave the Scottish Executive's backing to the plans.

He said it was a core part of the transport infrastructure plan and fitted in with the aim of "promoting sustainable economic growth".

The Scottish economy would benefit by £679m, at a rate of £1.81 for every £1 spent from the line, the minister claimed.

Mr Scott gave assurances that the executive would help ensure the rail line would be linked with local bus services.

Additional stations

SNP transport spokesman Fergus Ewing said his party backed the proposed new line.

However, he said as trains on the new route would take longer than the existing Glasgow to Edinburgh service, the line would primarily serve people in the West Lothian and North Lanarkshire areas.

He said the SNP would commit funds to building a station at Blackridge in West Lothian.

David Davidson, Conservative transport spokesman, also urged ministers to consider building additional stations at both Blackridge and Plains in North Lanarkshire.

"The more people we can get on the trains the better for the congestion on the M8," he said.

Green MSP Robin Harper said little had been done so far to accommodate those who would wish to walk and cycle to stations.

Ron McAulay, Network Rail's director for Scotland, said: "It is great news that today's debate went so well and that MSPs across the board are in favour of the bill proceeding to the next stage.

"This means the Airdrie-Bathgate proposals have passed another significant milestone and that Network Rail, as promoter of the bill, is one step closer to delivering the new railway."

Posted on 08:23 AM | Permalink

22 November 2006

The West Coast Main Line may not be able to sustain passenger growth within 10 years despite massive investment, a government watchdog has warned.

The NAO says industry consensus predicts the line filling up

The rail line between Glasgow and London is undergoing an £8.6bn upgrade.

The National Audit Office said it might not be able to cope with current levels of growth beyond 2015.

It said the line - the busiest in Britain - had been a victim of its own success and more work may be needed due to rapidly rising passenger numbers.

Network Rail said the increase in passenger numbers was a sign of success and voiced confidence that the numbers could be accommodated.

Deputy chief executive Iain Coucher told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We've got a programme of work still being undertaken now and more trains will be coming on over the next couple of years.

We are looking at capacity issues, but the only way we can actually tackle this problem is to take forward the work that we have already started - Douglas Alexander, Transport Secretary
Full interview

"And going forward, there's a whole range of things we can do: longer trains, more trains per hour through the key bottlenecks and then eventually closer together through new signalling systems."

Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander told BBC Radio Scotland "capacity issues" were being looked at.

"We have seen passenger numbers rising - indeed we have a one billion passenger railway, the fastest-growing passenger railway anywhere in Europe," he said.

Numbers of carriages had already been increased from eight to nine, said Mr Alexander, and there were plans to increase the number of trains from nine to 12 by 2008.

The line runs between Glasgow and London

The results of an independent review, which is examining the issue of capacity and the case for a new high-speed rail line, are due to be published within weeks.

Mr Alexander said he would unveil plans for the future of the railways next summer.

The auditors' report on the west coast line warned that electronic signalling equipment might become obsolete significantly earlier than expected.

To sustain train operations, the line's operator, Virgin Trains, was paid £590m more in subsidy in the period 2002-06 than envisaged in its franchise agreement, their report said.

National Audit Office (NAO) head Sir John Bourn said: "The weaknesses in the management of the project before 2002 should provide ample warning of the dangers of entering into a scheme on this scale without clear leadership, plans and project management expertise."

Following the warnings, shadow transport secretary Chris Grayling said he was "more and more concerned by the government's apparent inactivity over the mounting capacity crisis on our railways".

He said: "Over the next seven to 10 years we will see a third more passengers, but no more capacity for them to travel.

'If we are to offer a viable alternative to flights within the UK we are going to have to start planning to meet extra demand ' - Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrats

"We're going to need pretty urgent action, but the government has yet to come up with anything."

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the upgrade was "only a short-term solution to the capacity problems that will arise in the next decade".

"If we are to offer a viable alternative to flights within the UK we are going to have to start planning to meet extra demand by putting forward proposals for new high speed lines," he said.

The Scottish National Party said the Labour and Liberal Democrat coalition had failed to deliver a high speed rail link after seven years of power in Scotland and provide a link to the Eurostar system.

The report said the upgrade's remaining key projects would increase capacity for passengers and freight, but the industry consensus was that the line would not be able to sustain current growth levels beyond 2015-2020.

The west coast line now has high-speed tilting Pendolino trains, which have significantly cut journey times between Scotland, the north of England and London.

The NAO said punctuality and passenger satisfaction were much improved and the number of passenger journeys on Virgin West Coast increased by 20% in 2005-06, which was 4% more than expected.

Posted on 05:24 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 22, 2006

West Coast debacle underlines private-sector failure, says union

BRITAIN URGENTLY needs a new high-speed north-south railway, built as a public-sector project, Britain’s biggest rail union says today in the wake of the National Audit Office’s damning verdict on the West Coast Mainline upgrade.

The NAO report revealed that the “vastly overbudget” £8.6 billion upgrade will be incapable of coping with passenger growth as soon as 2015, and incorporates signalling components that will be obsolete significantly earlier than expected.

“The private sector has proved itself breathtakingly inefficient, wasteful and incapable of serious long-term transport planning that can deliver the huge increase in capacity our environment demands,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“The private train operator on the West Coast line has also taken nearly £600 million more in public subsidy than originally expected under its franchise agreement.

“The stark warnings in the Stern report underline the need for a fundamental rethink by the government about transport priorities, and a shift from road and air travel to trains, trams and buses.

“If we are to get people out of cars and planes and onto trains we need a growing, joined-up and affordable railway in an integrated transport network, and a new high-speed north-south railway is clearly essential.“However, it is equally clear that it cannot be delivered by the current fragmented and privatised set-up.

“We hope that the Eddington Transport Study will accept RMT’s submission, not only that a north-south high-speed railway line is essential, but that it should be delivered as part of an integrated and publicly owned railway,” Bob Crow said.

Note: Sir Rod Eddington was commissioned by the government to undertake a study of the transport system, and is expected to publish his report shortly.

Posted on 03:30 PM | Permalink

International Transport Workers' Federation: 21 November 2006

The ITF is describing the violent re-arrest of Iranian trade unionist Mansour Osanloo as an outrageous attempt to crush both a brave individual and all attempts to assert basic trade union rights in the country.

Mansoor Osanloo, President of Tehran & Suburbs Bus Company Union

Mansour Osanloo, the President of the trade union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, was only released on bail in August 2006 after a long campaign of intimidation by Iranian police and state security agents that has seen him and colleagues brutally arrested and meetings violently broken up. His release followed an international campaign led by the ITF (International Transport Workers’ Federation ) and ICFTU, now renamed ITUC (International Trade Union Confederation) that involved protests to Iran, demonstrations outside embassies and a formal complaint to the ILO (see www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/718 for previous press release and www.itfglobal.org/urban-transport/tehranbuses.cfm for full background and chronology.

The ITF has now received news that despite the injuries he had previously sustained Mansour Osanloo was bundled into a car by pistol firing unidentified plain clothes security officials on 19 November. At the time of the arrest, he was with two colleagues on their way to the Ministry of Labour. He was approached by about at least five plain clothes agents who told him he was under arrest. When he asked them to show their identification cards and warrant for his arrest they refused and started beating him and pulling him towards a car. When one of his colleagues asked to see ID he was also abused, punched and had a gun pointed at him. After firing a shot in the air the men forced Osanloo into a car and drove off.

Both the ITUC and ITF have already written to the Iranian government protesting this latest arrest (See related documents).

Osanloo had an eye operation last Thursday following injuries he sustained during a previous arrest and his eye was heavily bandaged. He was due to attend a court hearing tomorrow to answer charges leveled against him and about 16 other union members by state prosecutors regarding the bus workers' job action last year.

Neither his wife nor his lawyer have any information on where he has been taken. News of his arrest has been reported by official news agencies including ILNA and ISNA.

ITF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “Just when it looks like the Iranian government might try to abide by basic standards on human and trade union rights in this case they do it again - sending in their bully boys to beat and threaten and arrest. This is an appalling case that is revolting opinion around the world. We and other trade unionists worldwide will redouble our efforts to put pressure on the Iranian government to leave this man alone and permit the efforts to build a free trade union of a kind that most of us take for granted.”

ENDS

For more information contact ITF press officer, Sam Dawson.
Direct line: + 44 (0)20 7940 9260.
Email: dawson_sam@itf.org.uk

International Transport Workers' Federation - ITF:
HEAD OFFICE
ITF House, 49 - 60 Borough Road, London SE1 1DS
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7403 2733
Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7375 7871
Email: mail@itf.org.uk
Web: www.itfglobal.org

Posted on 05:22 AM | Permalink

The Scotsman: 20 Nov 2006

UNION leaders called today for action to halt a "disturbing" increase in assaults against railway workers after new evidence that official statistics did not show the true scale of the problem.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union said assaults, threats and verbal abuse more than doubled between 2001 and last year to more than 4700 incidents.

There had been a further rise this year, to over 5000, leading to union calls for a ban on alcohol on some services.

Posted on 04:28 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 20, 2006

STATUTORY TARGETS to get people out of cars and onto public transport must be a central plank of any strategy to combat climate change, Britain’s specialist transport union says today.

As MPs prepared to debate the environmental aspects of last week’s Queen’s Speech, RMT put forward for discussion an eight-point action plan aimed at harnessing public transport to help combat global warming. The eight points are:

*Introduction of statutory targets for ‘modal shift’ in transport use from private car and air travel to trains, buses and trams

*A statutory requirement for the Department for Transport to publish a strategy for reducing carbon emissions in the transport sector.

*Regulated and simplified rail and bus fares structured to encourage modal shift, rather than dictated by commercial considerations.

*Investment for significant increases in rail and bus capacity to be supported by ring-fenced revenues from road pricing.

*Increased investment and research into the production of carbon-efficient buses, trains cars and aeroplanes.

*An immediate review of the government’s road-building and airport-expansion plans.

*Amendment of the ACAS Code of Practice and legislation to give trade-union environmental representatives the same rights as industrial and health and safety reps.

“A climate-change bill is an important first step, but Britain will only be able to meet its climate-change challenge if policy measures are introduced that will get people out of cars and planes and onto trains, buses and trams,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“To do that public transport has to be made attractive, available and affordable for all.

“Ring-fencing revenue raised from road-pricing would be a welcome step towards making sufficient funds available to invest in the public transport Britain needs.

“The joined-up transport network the environment needs must also mean an end to the damaging fragmentation brought about by bus deregulation and rail privatisation,” Bob Crow said.

Posted on 08:17 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 20 2006

TUBE INFRASTRUCTURE work should be brought back in-house before the privateer contractors bring the entire system grinding to a halt, London Underground's biggest union says today.

As the capital was plunged into chaos by engineering overruns and infrastructure failure on three of London's essential Tube arteries, RMT renewed its call for the part-privatisation of the network to be scrapped

"Privatisation of Tube infrastructure has demonstrably failed, failed and failed again," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Only last week the PPP Arbiter issued a damning report on Metronet's failure to deliver, and this morning Londoners have woken up to find huge chunks of the Underground network simply not working.

"Tube infrastructure work needs to be carried out by an organisation whose sole aim is providing a service, not by privateers whose main aim is to drain as much profit as possible out of the system.

"We have said time and time again that the PPP is a complex device designed to convert public money into guaranteed, risk-free profits.

"Today should also serve as a warning that plans to allow privateers to get their hands on the operations of the East London Line should also be scrapped.

"How many more times does this have to happen before the government bows to the inevitable and allows the miserable PPP to be buried once and for all?" Bob Crow said.

Posted on 06:54 PM | Permalink

Japan Times: Nov. 20, 2006

This section of Tsuyama Line in Okayama has history of debris hitting tracks

A teo-car train on JR West's Tsuyama Line lies on its side after derailing Sunday morning in Okayama. Railway officials suspect the rails had been bent by a boulder that rolled down the mountain. KYODO

OKAYAMA (Kyodo) A two-car train derailed and landed on its side early Sunday on West Japan Railway Co.'s Tsuyama Line in Okayama, injuring 24 of the 25 passengers as well as the driver, fire department officials said.

The injured were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. Three suffered serious injuries, the officials said.

JR West suspects a 6-meter-long boulder found at the site may have been loosened by a landslide and rolled over the rails, bending them. The Tsuyama Line cuts through a deep mountain forest. Rails were bent up to 30 meters from the accident site.

The section has frequently been hit by landslides, including one in February 2005 in which a train hit rocks and mud that had fallen on the tracks. JR West said it has not taken preventive measures, such as installing a barrier to stop falling rocks.

Intermittent rain had been falling in the area since Saturday afternoon.

According to JR West, the train left Tsuyama Station at 4:29 a.m. and was scheduled to arrive at Okayama Station at 5:45 a.m.

While running between Makiyama and Tamagashi stations, the train's two cars jumped the tracks at about 5:35 a.m. and came to a rest on the mountain slope running alongside the line.

JR West employees said they found fallen rocks around the rails. The rocks also created large holes in a road running alongside the tracks. One of them -- a boulder about 6 meters long, 3 meters wide and 2 meters tall -- might have bent the rails and caused the derailment, they said.

No rocks apparently hit the train itself, they said.

JR West quoted the driver of the train as saying that just before the accident he hit the emergency brake when he saw some ripped up plants on the tracks, suggesting there had been a landslide.

The train was traveling at 65 to 70 kph when the driver hit the brake, according to JR West.

Kenta Ninomiya, a 17-year-old high school student from the nearby town of Tatebe, was chatting with friends in the second car when he heard a loud noise. His body shot forward as the train's emergency brake kicked in.

Sunday's derailment comes about 18 months after a JR West train on the Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, jumped the tracks and hit a condominium building, killing 107 people and injuring more than 500.

Posted on 04:50 AM | Permalink

The 2006 pay deal is 3.8% or £650, whichever is greater. 1,200 staff will get more than 3.8% as a result of the flat rate increase of £650 as follows: staff on £11,000 salary = 6% pay rise; £12,000 = 5.4%; 13,000 = 5% exactly; £14,000 = 4.65%; £15000 = 4.35%; £16000 = 4.05%; £17000 = 3.83%. Most of these low-paid staff are from former Wessex and FGW Link.

Although the flat-rate increase goes some way towards addressing the pay gap, the RMT will not be satisfied until there is equal pay for station staff doing comparable work.

This issue will be addressed during harmonisation talks, We have told the company that the issues of equal pay and the 35-hour week must be settled by March 31st 2007, or we’ll be in dispute with FGW.

TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS
Also agreed were reciprocal travel arrangements across the 3 former companies. FGW have caused confusion by being slow to inform staff officially of this arrangement, and have confused matters further by sending out a circular about extending expiry dates on existing travel passes.

The RMT is still pursuing the issue of facilities for retired staff and discrimination against post-privatisation staff.

TICKET VENDING MACHINES
A consultation over implementation of new machines starts on Tuesday 7th November. Local RMT reps have consulted with staff over this and the feedback will go to this meeting. RMT will not accept any staff cuts over TVM implementation, nor staff being given extra duties without compensation, nor lone staff emptying and servicing machines. TVMs should be used to complement, not replaTVMs should complement, not replace, existing services. Stations and passengers are best served by people, not machines.

HARMONISATION
Station Staff divisional/sectional council reps meet on 3rd and 16th November to prepare our proposals for bringing pay, conditions and bargaining machinery into line across the 3 previous companies which make up the new franchise. These proposals will be put to Joint Station Staff Divisional/Sectional Council meeting on 22nd November. We expect harmonisation to be a long process, but will not accept delay on the 2 issues of unequal pay and 35-hour week.

Until we can agree one structure and a timetable for elections, local/sectional/divisional representatives will stay in post. Get in touch with Regional Office ( 0117 925 5018) if you’re not sure who your local rep. is.

UNIFORM
We’ve proposed setting up a Uniform Committee to deal with problems such as trousers so thin the hairs on cold male legs stick through! Female staff who do retail work can now order cardigans, however, whatever their grade!

STATION STAFF DIVISIONAL/SECTIONAL COUNCIL REPS

FORMER FGW LINK
Chris Reilly 07880 503340

FORMER WESSEX
Ian Baikie (Clerical) 07855 185314
Glen Burrows (Rail Operators) 07764 994541
Tim Wilkinson (Rail Operators)07760 377515

FORMER FGW
Ken Battishill (Clerical) 07929 596970
Phil Boston (Station Staff) 07841 295235
Mike Llewellin (Station Staff) 01225 446159

Posted on 06:09 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No: IR/254/06: November 16 2006

Dear Colleague,
Midland Mainline - Carillion Rail - Serco Integrated Services

Midland Mainline

Further to negotiations the following 2-year offer has been accepted and should be reflected in the next available pay packet. The offer is as follows:-

* Year 1 - A 3.5% increase in basic rates of pay, effective 1st April 2006.
* Year 2 - A 3.5% increase in basic rates of pay, effective 1st April 2007.

An agreement to incorporate changes associated with the introduction of the crewplan system, staff signing on/off duty using a touch screen or an automated telephone system.

Carillion Rail

Following the conclusion of the referendum, where members voted to accept the company's offer, we are waiting for Carillion to implement the increase and pay the backpay. I have been advised that is a delay as the company have set up a new computer system for payroll and it is unlikely that it will be resolved before the end of the year. The accepted offer is as follows:

* 3.2% increase to basic rates of pay or £500, whichever is greater, effective 1st April 2006.
* 3.2% increase to London and South East allowances, effective 1st April 2006.
* 3.2% increase to overtime and shift allowances.
* An additional one-off lump sum to be paid to the following admin grades, effective 1st April 2006:-
o CO2 £500
o CO3/4 £300
o CO5 £250 (If base salary does not already exceed £22,000)

Carillion are also to make a £6m contribution to the GTRM pension scheme over a 3-year period to help reduce the current deficit.

Serco Integrated Services (Formerly Turnberry Hotel)

Further to meetings with the company the following offer has been placed before the GGC, who have carefully studied the offer and the Regional Organiser's report, have taken the decision to accept the offer. The company has been informed of our acceptance and the increase will be in the next available pay packet. The offer is as follows:-

* 3% increase to rates of pay, effective 1st April 2006.
* A review of the annualised hours system of work at the site. This to be completed by end of November 2006.
* Maternity leave of 26 weeks will be 'topped up' by the company to 100% of their pay. The same to be applied to the paternity leave of 2 weeks.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 03:30 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No: IR/254/06: November 16 2006

Dear Colleagues,
After a magnificent stand by members during their 10-day strike, the following offer was put to a referendum and was unanimously accepted by members:-

* A 25% increase in all rates of pay with effect from 1st November, 2006.
* A further increase of 5% on the new pay rates with effect from 1st April, 2007
* An increase of 5% or RPI (Currently 3.6%) + 1.5%, whichever is the greater, with effect from 1st November 2007.
* An increase of 5% or RPI + 1.5%, whichever is the greater, with effect from 1st November 2008.

The RPI figure to be used will be the September figure as published in October. By our calculations this works out as a 44.7% increase to pay rates by November 2008.

In addition the Employers have agreed to pay all (8) Bank Holidays at 100% of the Day Rate.

Separate from pay, we have also agreed to draw up formal recognition and Procedural Agreements with each individual company to be in place by 31st March 2007. Pay talks will remain a collective matter between all companies and RMT under the current arrangements.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 03:26 PM | Permalink

The Melbourne Age: November 16, 2006
Stephen Moynihan, Transport Reporter

SOME of Melbourne's newest passenger trains have had to be withdrawn from service after a spate of braking failures.

One of the suspect Siemens trains.

Connex, the operator of the suburban rail network, has reported 15 incidents involving trains overshooting platforms since Monday and is at a loss to explain the problem.

The most serious incident occurred on Tuesday night when a train failed to stop at Brighton Beach station and travelled into the level crossing at South Road.

The boom gates still had not been lowered as the train came to rest in the middle of the intersection. A rail system source said cars were forced to brake to avoid colliding with the train.

The problems involve a fleet of 72 German-built trains that were introduced to the suburban network in 2003.

Fourteen three-carriage trains have been removed from service following emergency talks between Connex and the trains manufacturer, Siemens.

The withdrawal of the trains is expected to cause some disruption to services, particularly on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines, until the problems can be fixed.

The source said the problems were connected to the trains' computerised braking system. In several incidents, drivers were forced to apply emergency brakes, push emergency stop buttons and activate handbrakes to bring the trains to a halt.

But even after activation of all manual braking systems, some trains continued moving. One incident occurred while a driver was undergoing assessment by a transport official.

Connex chairman Bob Annells last night confirmed that some Siemens trains had been removed from service and said it was unlikely the incidents were caused by driver error.

"It does seem clear from our analysis it is most likely a software issue in the computer-assisted braking system," Mr Annells said.

But a spokesman for Siemens denied the trains were at fault. "There is nothing wrong with the brakes," he said.

Mr Annells said passenger and driver safety was Connex's main concern and his company was working with Siemens staff to find the cause. "We haven't had a problem with these trains for over a year," Mr Annells said.

But he conceded there had been issues in the past. "(They) have experienced overshoots and modifications were made to correct the matter. It seemed that those changes had been successful. Obviously this has not fully addressed the issue."

Since its introduction in April 2003, the Siemens fleet has been plagued with controversy. The trains were initially too wide for suburban tracks and have recently been repaired to fix faulty wiring. They have also been criticised for having only two sets of doors on each side of each carriage, causing bottlenecks for passengers.

In 2004, after a train failed to stop at Williamstown station, the Rail Tram and Bus Union won a fight for an improved braking system to be installed in all Siemens trains.

Mr Annells said Connex had briefed the transport safety regulator and the union to alert them to the faults and to outline plans to fix the trains.

"Maintenance logs and operational records are being checked and each train will be given a full running brake test before being returned to service," Mr Annells said.

He said Connex was made aware of the problem earlier in the week. He denied the company was covering it up in the lead-up to the state election.

A Siemens spokesman denied the company was playing down the issue and said it was a matter for Connex.

In May, the State Government announced it would spend $800 million on new trains. Siemens is believed to be lobbying hard to snare the contract.

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the Government was responsible for all matters of train safety. "Irrespective of the political embarrassment and inconvenience, the fleet of Siemens trains must be withdrawn and the braking fault identified and rectified," Mr Mulder said.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said Connex was monitoring the trains and defective trains would be removed from service

Siemens trains make up just under a quarter of the 328 trains in Melbourne's suburban fleet.

Posted on 09:42 AM | Permalink

Times Online: November 15, 2006
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

HIGH-SPEED trains will compete with airlines between London and dozens of cities on the Continent from next year, when three missing links in Europe’s 186mph rail network will be filled.

Eurostar is joining forces with high-speed rail operators in six European countries to offer through tickets and fast connections.

Journey times from London to Amsterdam, Cologne, Strasbourg and Zurich will be cut by up to two hours, making rail a fast alternative to air travel for the first time in 30 years.

From November 14 next year Eurostar passengers will no longer have to spend the first 30 miles of their journey on slow, suburban lines in South London.

The completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which was renamed High Speed 1 (or HS1) yesterday, will allow Eurostar trains to accelerate to 186mph (300km/h) within minutes of leaving their new terminus at St Pancras. They will reach the Channel Tunnel 70 miles away in half an hour, shaving about 25 minutes off the journey time to Paris and Brussels. London to Paris will take 2 hours and 15 minutes.

With a change of trains at Lille or Brussels, passengers will be able to transfer to two other high-speed lines being completed next year: from Brussels to Amsterdam and from Paris to Strasbourg.

The fastest time between London and Amsterdam will be cut by an hour and 20 minutes to three and a half hours. Train times will be synchronised to allow about 15 minutes to change platforms at Brussels.

Richard Brown, Eurostar’s chief executive, said that the cheapest fares between London and Amsterdam would be less than £100, to compete with budget airlines. Eurostar believes that security measures at airports, which force passengers to arrive earlier for flights, have made rail more attractive.

Flying between London and Amsterdam takes an hour, but the total journey from city centre to city centre takes about the same as high-speed trains will take from the end of next year.

Eurostar is also considering running direct trains from London to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, which serves more destinations than Heathrow and can be much cheaper for transatlantic flights.

Europe’s high-speed rail network will be promoted by Rail Team, a new body linking Eurostar with train operators in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Passengers will be able to view a single timetable and book through tickets.

Eurostar will promote itself as the green alternative to air travel. It has published a study which shows that, per passenger, a Eurostar train emits ten times less carbon dioxide than a typical aircraft flying between London and Paris.

Mr Brown said that the average fare would increase slightly from next year but the cheapest return fare of £59 would be maintained.

Frequency will be increased, and trains will operate earlier and later, with services reaching Paris or Brussels before 9am.

Eurostar’s terminus at Waterloo will close on November 13. Eurostar decided that it would be too expensive to have two London terminals.

Posted on 09:20 AM | Permalink

ICEM News release: 18 November 2006

A march and mass rally against Imerys’ rash restructuring in the UK'S South West was held on Saturday, 18 November, in St. Austell.

Sponsored by UK trade unions Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU), Amicus, and GMB, the colourful march featured French, American and global union representatives, who reminded Imerys workers in the Cornwall and Devon region that the company will grant nothing without a fight. The march culminated with the rally and speeches at Poltair Carpark.

The march and rally was part of a build-up to an industrial ballot that the UK unions will take in the South West Imerys, a Paris-based multinational that produces building materials. Imerys is targeting some 610 jobs to be made redundant at its kaolin mine and processing operations in the South West by the end of next year.

The restructuring has gained global attention through the TGWU’s outreach to other unions representing Imerys workers around the world.

Speakers at Saturday’s event included Serge Gonzales, from the French trade union Fédération Force Ouvrière (FO) Matériaux, Céramique et Thermique, who is Secretary of Imerys’ European Works Council; Keith Fulbright, a shop-floor leader at Imery’s Sylacauga, Alabama, calcium carbonate mine and plant, who is President of Local Branch 3-0516 of the United Steelworkers (USW) of America; and Dick Blin, a representative of the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine & General Workers' (ICEM) Unions, the Brussels-based Global Union Federation, which includes Imerys’ trade unions worldwide.

Also speaking were South West MEP Glyn Ford, who has flagged the redundancies as an economic catastrophe to the region, as well as Jennie Formby, TGWU National Secretary, and Laura Lamprell, TGWU Regional Industrial Organiser.

“Imerys has exhibited utter contempt in regards to workers, their families and, indeed, the entire well-being of communities built by the labours of English China Clay,” said Formby. “That contempt has stretched from the manner in which they made the announcement last July, to the manner in which they’ve conducted the consultation process with the workers’ representatives.”

“We have told Imerys that their anti-social policies in the UK will affect their reputation globally,” said Serge Gonzales. “We demand of Imerys a reversal to the anti-worker conduct that it is displaying in various countries throughout Europe.”

In Sylacauga, Alabama, Imerys also has demonstrated a record of union-busting and non-adherence to its social obligations. The USW has fended off two de-unionisation efforts by the company since the turn of the decade, and it is only now, through renewed strength of the USW among the 500-member workforce, that the company has tempered its anti-worker agenda.

“The lesson that I bring about Imerys from America to workers of the South West is this: ‘Stay united, stay focused,’” said the USW’s Keith Fulbright. “Our experience is that Imerys will attack when they know the union is weak. It was only after we signed nearly every worker into the union that everyone began displaying that fact on the shop floor. It was only then that Imerys backed off.”

“Imerys must begin making real commitments to workers and communities of the South West,” said ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs. “The ICEM guarantees that unless fairness and respect are granted, we will do everything in our power to bring this dispute into all the company’s global workplaces.”

Posted on 11:52 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 17 2006

ON THE eve of the 19th anniversay of the 1987 Kings Cross fire, Britain’s biggest rail union has today renewed its call on the government not to scrap essential fire-safety regulations for sub-surface stations which were introduced after the disaster that claimed 31 lives.

RMT also today welcomed the tabling of a House of Commons Early Day Motion by John McDonnell, (see below) which calls on the government to retain the regulations in order to ensure minimum statutory fire-safety protection at sub-surface railway stations throughout Britain.

After a sustained campaign, the governmemnt has previosuly postponed the scrapping of the 'Section 12' regulations (see notes below), and they continue to be in force alongside the new but far less specific Fire Safety Order, which was introduced in October.

"As we remember the 31 victims of the Kings Cross fire, we should also remember that it was as a direct result of that tragedy that the Section 12 regulations were introduced two years later," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"It is hugely disturbing that less than two decades after Kings Cross, and with the July 7 bombings still fresh in our minds, it remains possible that the strict minimum safety standards laid down as a result of the Fennell inquiry could be removed.

"The government's decision to postpone scrapping Section 12 in January this year was welcome, but it is imperative that ministers now recognise the need to keep them in place, because the Fire Safety Order is simply not an adequate substitute.

"The Section 12 regulations stipulate minimum statutory fire-safety measures that are simply not specified in the new Fire Safety Order, which turns the clock back to a discretionary approach and puts too much faith in relying on employers not to cut corners.

"It is good news that John McDonnell, who has done so much in parliament to keep these regulations in place, has tabled another Commons motion, and RMT members will be urging every MP to sign it.

"We look forward to the opportunity of outlining our concerns to Angela Smith, the minister now responsible, and will work within any forum to help ensure that these vital safeguards remain in place," Bob Crow said.

ends

Notes to editors: The 1989 Regulations make up Section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971, and were added on the recommendation of the Fennell Report into the 1987 King's Cross fire. They cover 'sub-surface stations' throughout Britain, including those on underground systems in Glasgow, Tyne and Wear and London, but also national rail stations which are 'sub-surface', including Birmingham New Street and several in Liverpool. The government's Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2004, as originally drafted, would have repealed the 1971 Act, and with it the Section 12 regulations.

The regulations stipulate minimum safe staffing levels, means of detecting and warning of fires and means of escape and firefighting, as well as standards of fire-resistant construction, training and various other precautions, which are not specified in the Fire Safety Order the government wants to replace them with.

The government's first move to scrap the 1989 regulations - which lay down minimum staffing levels and other safety standards for sub-surface stations - was opposed by the House of Commons' Regulatory Reform Committee in October 2004, following an intervention by RMT parliamentary group convenor John McDonnell. The relevant part of the committee's report is attached.

The government subsequently said it would repeal the regulations in April 2006, but most recently indicated that it would do so six to 12 months after the Fire Safety Order came into force, which . However, the Fire Safety Order and guidance do not give the same statutory protections as in the 1989 Regulations, specifically on:

* Means of escape
* Means of fighting fire
* Means of detection and giving warning
* Fire-resistant construction
* Instruction and training
* Keeping of records
* Additional precautions including practicable steps to prevent smoking, and staffing levels.

Parliamentary Early Day Motion 133, Fire Precautions Regulations

Tabled by John McDonnell and signed initially by Glenda Jackson, Jeremy Corbyn and Bob Russell

"That this House notes that the Government is reviewing the Fire Precautions (Sub-surface Railway Stations) Regulations 1989, introduced following the Fennell Report into the 1987 King's Cross fire disaster; further notes that those regulations set out minimum standards for fire precautions in sub-surface railway stations including means of escape, means of fighting fire, minimum staffing levels and staff instruction and training; and therefore calls on the Government to maintain the regulations to ensure that there continues to be minimum statutory fire safety protection at sub-surface railway stations."

See also:

Call over Underground fire safety

Press Association: November 18, 2006

Union leaders stepped up their campaign to keep fire safety regulations in place across London Underground, on the 19th anniversary of the King's Cross fire, which claimed 31 lives.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union said regulations brought in after the blaze in 1987 should not be watered down.

The union said it feared the Government still had plans to change the so-called Section 12 regulations, which set out minimum staffing levels and fire safety measures on the Tube, despite a long-running campaign to keep them intact.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "As we remember the 31 victims of the King's Cross fire, we should also remember that it was as a direct result of that tragedy that the Section 12 regulations were introduced two years later.

"It is hugely disturbing that less than two decades after King's Cross, and with the July 7 bombings still fresh in our minds, it remains possible that the strict minimum safety standards could be removed."

Labour MP John McDonnell has tabled a House of Commons motion urging the Government to maintain the regulations.

See also:

Union fears over Tube fire safety

BBC news:< 18 November 2006

On This Day: King's Cross fire
A union has stepped up its campaign to keep fire safety regulations in place across London Underground, on the 19th anniversary of the King's Cross fire.

King's Cross underground station after the 1987 fire

The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said rules brought in after the blaze in 1987 should not be diluted.

A government spokesman said new fire safety regulations would lead to an even safer Underground system.

The King's Cross fire broke out under a wooden escalator at the central London Tube station and claimed 31 lives.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "As we remember the 31 victims of the King's Cross fire, we should also remember that it was as a direct result of that tragedy that the Section 12 regulations were introduced two years later.

'Hugely disturbing'

"It is hugely disturbing that less than two decades after King's Cross, and with the 7 July bombings still fresh in our minds, it remains possible that the strict minimum safety standards could be removed."

A spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government said: "We do not accept the views of the RMT.

"Public safety is our number one priority and we believe the new fire safety rules will lead to an even safer underground system.

"We are committed to running the existing regulations in parallel with the new regime so the effectiveness can be seen and we won't be removing the old regulations until that has been demonstrated."

Labour MP John McDonnell has tabled a House of Commons motion urging the government to maintain the regulations.

Posted on 10:26 AM | Permalink

The Scotsman: 18 Nov 2006

GUARDS, station staff and some train drivers on the east coast main line between Scotland and London are to be balloted for strike action in a row which could hit Christmas services.

The RMT union said 1,500 of its members at GNER will vote on whether to walk out in protest at the failure to achieve a 35-hour working week.

Union officials warned that a strike would cause "massive" disruption.

A GNER spokesman said: "We are surprised and saddened the RMT has chosen to ballot for industrial action, especially as we have been talking with the unions about a shorter working week for more than a year and making good progress."

See also:

Rail workers to vote on strike

Guardian Online: November 17, 2006

Workers at one of the country's biggest rail operators are to be balloted for strikes in a row over hours which could hit services over Christmas.

The RMT said 1,500 of its members at GNER will vote on whether to walk out in protest at the failure to achieve a 35-hour working week.

Guards, station staff, booking office workers and some train drivers will take part in the ballot.

Union officials warned that a strike would cause "massive" disruption to GNER's services, which run on the East Coast main line from King's Cross in London to stations including Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

The RMT said an agreement was reached several years ago for GNER staff to work a 35-hour week but claimed the company was now trying to tie the reduction to job cuts.

General secretary Bob Crow said: "The company is simply refusing to talk to us in any meaningful way about what should be the straightforward implementation of an agreement for a 35-hour week on the basis of existing agreed staffing levels. Instead, they are cynically attempting to use the 35-hour week as a cover for the imposition of staff cuts throughout the company.

"The company has already imposed a blanket ban on filling posts, which has created staff shortages and left our members working in increasingly difficult and stressful circumstances.

"GNER travel centres in Edinburgh and at King's Cross are both operating with 20 staff fewer than the agreed levels despite introduction of fast ticket machines, and at King's Cross there are several staff on long-term sick leave due to the resulting stress.

"It is the same story with on-train teams, where the recruitment ban is having a major negative effect on the remaining staff members, and the failure to replace chefs is fuelling fears that GNER is preparing to cut its prestige restaurant cars altogether."

The union warned that the financial problems of GNER's owner Sea Containers was forcing the company to "squeeze" cash out of the franchise, but he said the union was not prepared to see jobs cut.

Posted on 09:35 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 17 2006

AROUND 1,500 members of Britrain’s biggest rail union at GNER are to be balloted for strike action over the company’s failure to honour its agreement to introduce a 35-hour week.

RMT has notified the company of its intention to ballot for action following the failure of the company to sign off implementation of the shorter working week for any group of grades, despite an agreement in principle having been reached several years ago.

"The company is simply refusing to talk to us in any meaningful way about what should be the straightforward implementation of an agreement for a 35-hour week on the basis of existing agreed staffing levels," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Instead, they are cynically attempting to use the 35-hour week as a cover for the imposition of staff cuts throughout the company.

"The company has already imposed a blanket ban on filling posts, which has created staff shortages and left our members working in increasingly difficult and stressful circumstances.

"GNER Travel centres in Edinburgh and at King's Cross are both operating with 20 staff fewer than the agreed levels despite introduction of fast ticket machines, and at Kings Cross there are several staff on long-term sick leave due to the resulting stress.

"It is the same story with on-train teams, where the recruitment ban is having a major negative effect on the remaining staff members, and the failure to replace chefs is fuelling fears that GNER is preparing to cut its prestige restaurant cars altogether.

"Everyone knows that Sea Containers is in deep financial crisis and is trying to sweat its assets and squeeze every last drop of cash out the franchise, but we have already warned GNER that we will not stand by and watch them make our members pay with their jobs.

"We are happy to negotiate implementation of the long-promised 35-hour week, and we are now due to meet the company at national level on December 6, but we have made it clear that we are now in dispute," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 11:51 AM | Permalink

Xinhua: 2006-11-17 20:01

China is ready to raise national train speeds from the current 160 km per hour to 200 km per hour, said an official with the Ministry of Railways Friday.

The change will come into effect next April.

An 18-day traction test has been completed and conditions are ripe for the speed hike, the sixth in nine years, said Hu Yadong, vice minister of railways at the press conference.

Some sections of the Beijing-Harbin line, the Beijing-Shanghai line, the Beijing-Guangzhou line and the Ji'nan-Qingdao line will be able to run trains at 250 km per hour, said Hu.

The ministry will also deploy more passenger trains on the Qinghai-Tibet route, he said.

Four hundred and eighty home-made locomotives will be used in 17 provinces and municipalities by the end of 2007, according to the ministry.

China raised its railway speed for the first time in 1997. The fifth speed increase, which came into effect on April 18, 2004, helped increase the country's passenger and freight transport capacity by 18.5 percent and 15 percent respectively over the past two years.

The sixth acceleration is expected to increase passenger transport capacity by 18 percent and freight transport capacity 12 percent, said the vice minister.

Posted on 11:51 AM | Permalink

Business Week: 17 November 2006
WANETSHA MOSINYI

FRANCISTOWN: Botswana Railways (BR) will construct a railway line to transport coal from Mmmabula Power Station to South Africa after the mine becomes operational.

The corporation plans to invest up to US $200 million (P1.2 billion) to construct the necessary infrastructure like bridges to connect a railway line from Mmamabula to Erasmus, Andrew Lunga, the BR chief executive officer said in an interview.

"There are more than P200 billion worth of opportunities to explore in the transportation of coal, so we are positioning ourselves to benefit from that industry," he said. Eskom will import electricity directly from the coal fired Mmamabula station and will also import coal for other power plants in South Africa to boost its power needs of about 2000 MW per year.

Botswana Power Corporation and Eskom on Monday signed an agreement for the supply of electricity from the Mmmabula Power Station, which is due for commissioning in 2008 The CEO said that BR is working closely with a company called CIC and are currently doing a feasibility study to determine all the logistics required to operate the railway like locomotives and rail lines.

The Mmamabula-Erasmus railway line is part of BR's P1.6 billion turnaround strategy plan, he said.

Lunga stated that the strategy plan would be implemented in the next 12 months if approved by cabinet. He added that the strategy would enable the national rail carrier diversify from its large dependency on transit goods to export. "Transit goods are very low, and they have been for years, so we need to change the way we do business and diversify to exporting which has been on the increase."

BR lost millions of Pula in revenue from transit goods when the Ramatlabama-Ramokgwebana line was abandoned in preference of the Beit Bridge line, which links South Africa directly to Zimbabwe. Botswana used to benefit from goods, which passed through the country going as far as the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Lunga said that there has been a tremendous increase of export of Copper, Coal and Soda Ash from Botswana to neighbouring countries like South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. He added that the demand for the exportation of these mineral resources has of late exceeded their wagon capacity. "We will rehabilitate our wagons and invest in new ones to meet the demand."

Last month BR suspended the day passenger train between Francistown and Gaborone, a move Lunga says is part of their turnaround strategy. He disclosed that after finishing consultations with the Ministry of Finance, they would introduce modern coaches called Diesel Multiple Units that travel faster and more efficiently.

BR has seen a P350,000 profit in the past four months after the introduction of the Francistown-Bulawayo train in May. "We might start operating on a daily basis because people have been asking us if we can provide the service daily," Lunga said.

He also disclosed that the vandalism of property in the Francistown-Bulawayo train has subsided, but instead the theft of signal equipment and fuel has increased. However, Lunga says recently four people including BR employees were arrested on suspicion of stealing fuel.

Posted on 11:50 AM | Permalink

RMT: 17 November 2006

Who will pay for Metronet’s £750 million overspend?
Mobilise for Public Meeting 25th November 2006

On 16 November the Independent Public Private Partnership (PPP) arbiter, Chris Bolt, published a report on the performance of tube maintenance and renewals companies Metronet BCV [Bakerloo, Central, Victoria] and Metronet SSL [Sub-Surface Lines]. The RMT made representations to the arbiter as he was considering his position.

The report considered the period April 2003 to March 2006 and the arbiter has concluded that “…neither of the two Metronet Infracos has performed in line with required standard over the period as a whole”.

Despite this damming criticism TfL are still pressing ahead with plans to extend the role of the privateers to tube passenger services with the privatisation of the East London Line.

The report explains that across most categories of work there are issues arising from Metronet’s ability to manage cost and delivery:

* Generally costs are higher than bid

* Delivery is delayed

* Metronet is slow to adapt/change and

* Its approach is generally reactive

None of this will come as a real surprise to RMT members employed by Metronet or those working on LUL or at the other Infraco Tube Lines. Your union has long argued that the PPP represents little more than a risk-free way of turning public funds into profits for private shareholders. In 2005/06 BCV and SSL made combined retained profits of almost £25million.

The arbiter’s report also explains that Metronet is on-line to overspend by £750 million by 2010. This begs the question of who will pay for this overspend...

... The travelling public by an increase in fares?

... Metronet workers through the company refusing to make decent improvements in terms and conditions in the future?

... The tax payer through increased public subsidy?

RMT strongly believes that in fact none of the above should bear responsibility for Metronet’s problems. Instead the PPP should be scrapped with Government bringing forward legislation to remove the privateers and return engineering functions to the public sector under London Underground Limited.

In the near future members of the RMT Parliamentary Group and other sympathetic MPs will be tabling an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons about the arbiter’s report.

As members will know Balfour Beatty is one of the companies that make up Metronet. Astonishingly In late October a joint venture of Balfour Beatty and Carillion were awarded a £363million contract to build the East London Line extension.

As part of the ongoing campaign against the PPP and privatisation of the East London Line a lobby and fringe meeting have been organised at the London Labour Party conference on 25 November. Please make every effort to attend these two important campaigning events.


London Underground: Public Service or Private Profit?
MOBILISE FOR LOBBY AND PUBLIC MEETING.

LONDON LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE, STRATFORD
25th NOVEMBER 2006

LOBBY

8.30 – 930 Stratford Old Town Hall, 29 the Broadway
PUBLIC MEETING
12.30 – 2.00, East London Centre, Boardman House, 64 Broadway
Speakers include,
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary,
Manuel Cortes, TSSA Assistant General Secretary
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Refreshments Provided

Posted on 11:50 AM | Permalink

AFX: 17th November 2006

LONDON - The UK rail regulator said it has decided to fine English Welsh and Scottish Railway Ltd (EWS) £4.1 million sterling for anti-competitive practices.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said the rail freight operator had accepted its findings that its contracts effectively excluded competitors for coal haulage by rail from the market and it pursued discriminatory and predatory pricing practices.

The ORR added it had taken EWS's cooperation into account when setting the fine.

The investigations had started following complaints from Enron Coal Services Ltd in 2001 and Freightliner Heavy Haul in 2002.

EWS is part-owned by Canadian National Railways Co.

Posted on 09:58 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 16 November 2006

Tube maintenance firm Metronet has been criticised for its performance by an independent assessment.

Mayor Ken Livingstone has been highly critical of Metronet

The company has not performed in an economic and efficient manner over the last three years, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Arbiter said.

Metronet has been chastised in recent months for falling behind on its track maintenance and renewal projects.

The firm defended its record and said the report found it generally performed "at or better than benchmark".

The assessment covered the firm's activities since the PPP agreements were introduced in April 2003 and March 2006.

PPP arbiter Chris Bolt, author of the report, concluded Metronet had not "performed in line with the required standard over the period as a whole".

'Weaknesses remain'

He said Metronet had poorly planned some of its work and said management "deficiencies" were hindering the delivery of its PPP obligations.

He said it had taken measures to address "shortcomings in its performance" in the last year that have helped to improve standards.

But he said the benefits of those changes have yet to be felt, and "areas of weakness remain" including:

* Stations, where Metronet is significantly behind schedule in delivering its obligations
* Tracks, where there have been insufficient resources to deliver required volumes of work and poor delivery of maintenance and renewals

"While Metronet is demonstrating good performance in some areas, such as fleet management, it needs to make significant improvements in other areas," said Mr Bolt.

'Failing to deliver'

Mayor Ken Livingstone said the report showed that "Metronet is failing to deliver the quality and efficiency for which it is being very generously paid under the PPP".

Andrew Lezala, Metronet chief executive, said it recognised the firm's performance "has fallen short of expectations in some areas".

"We intend to ensure that appropriate improvements will be made in good time to be economic and efficient in advance of the end of the first contract period in 2010."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritme and Transport union, urged the government to scrap PPP.

"Failure is built into the very fabric of the PPP and it has to be ended," said Mr Crow.

See also:

Watchdog slams Tube maintenance company

Times Online: November 16, 2006
By Philippe Naughton

A sign at Kings Cross Underground station blaming Metronet for a broken escalator (Andre Camara/The Times)

Unions and passenger watchdogs reacted with "I told you so" today after an independent arbiter criticised the private company contracted to provide most maintenance services on the London Underground.

The Tube regulator, Chris Bolt, assessed Metronet on its performance from April 2003, when it took over maintenance of all Tube lines except for the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly under the controversial public-private partnership (PPP) scheme.

He said that the performance of the two Metronet infrastructure companies had improved over the past year, but added: "My conclusion is that neither... has performed in line with the required standard over the period as a whole."

Mr Bolt's 70-page report is his first as the official PPP arbiter and contains detailed assessments of a long list of criteria against agreed benchmarks - rather than listing the actual problems faced by passengers and train operators because of maintenance delays.

But Brian Cooke, chairman of London TravelWatch, a passenger watchdog body, said: "It will be no surprise to the long-suffering Tube passengers that Metronet’s performance is not in line with the required standard.

"After the failures, the inconvenience, the excuses and inaccurate information used by Metronet over the past year, many Londoners will regard that as a huge understatement.

"We hope that Metronet has also learnt that giving misleading information to passengers is not in their interest. Passengers want the truth."

Metronet is split into two companies, Metronet Rail SSL and Metronet Rail BCV. The other three lines are maintained by another "infraco" (infrastructure company) called Tube Lines.

Mr Bolt, who is also head of the Office of Rail Regulation as well as arbiter under the London Underground PPP, said that Metronet was "significantly behind schedule" on its work on Tube stations and there was "poor delivery of maintenance and renewals" on track work.

He said: "While Metronet is demonstrating good performance in some areas, such as fleet management, it needs to make significant improvements in other areas.

"It is particularly important that Metronet should fully implement its asset and risk management programmes and make further improvements in delivery of the track and stations programmes.

"This is essential if Metronet is to improve its overall performance to the standard required in the PPP agreements. I hope to see much clearer evidence of efficiency and economy and of good industry practice at next year’s review."

The arbiter's report is issued only for guidance purposes and does not lead to any financial penalty for Metronet, whose shareholders include Atkins, Balfour Beatty, Bombardier, EDF Energy and Thames Water.

The fear among other partners is that it would be the taxpayers who have to foot the bill to cover up for Metronet's failings.

Responding to Mr Bolt’s report, Andrew Lezala, the Metronet chief executive, said: "We recognise that Metronet’s performance in the first three years of the contract has fallen short of expectations in some areas - in particular on the delivery of station modernisations - and we are addressing this and other issues.

"We are now implementing improvements in the stations programme that we have been developing over the last 12 months and are discussing with London Underground whether we can jointly take these further."

The arbiter's prompted Peter Hendy, London’s Transport Commissioner, to call on the Metronet shareholders to deliver on their promises to London.

He said: "The arbiter’s conclusion is, unfortunately, no surprise to me or the travelling public, who have had to endure the avoidable disruption caused by Metronet’s delayed work programme, which remains seriously behind schedule.

"We have repeatedly made clear our concerns with Metronet’s performance and delivery of maintenance and renewal work. It is clearly time for an end to the excuses."

Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, added "The arbiter’s report confirms that, despite the massive investment in renewing the Underground, Metronet is failing to deliver the quality and efficiency for which it is being very generously paid under the PPP.

"Metronet has failed to deliver the programme of station refurbishment and its over-runs on maintenance work have repeatedly delayed services for passengers. I disagreed with the PPP, and particularly its enormous cost, but we are doing all we can to make it work in the interests of Londoners. In the case of Metronet, this simply is not happening."

London Underground managing director Tim O’Toole said: "These proceedings are a mystery to the travelling public, but the quality of service is not. We have seen improvements to the Underground network, but not to the level we would expect.

Mr Bolt’s report said that Metronet had "delivered significantly less than was expected in its bid (for the PPP contract), at a higher unit cost and has earned less performance revenue than expected".

Metronet told the arbiter that it had had disputes with London Underground (LU) and there had been delays in getting approvals from LU for some work. The report went on: "However, this appears, at least in part, to be a result of poor planning by Metronet.

"The arbiter notes that Tube Lines has also had disputes but this does not appear to have hindered delivery in the same way as for Metronet."

The report also said that the PPP deal required effective partnership which relied on open sharing of information. "That does not appear to have happened," the report added.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said: "Failure is built into the very fabric of the PPP and it has to be ended."

He added: "No amount of tinkering around the edges of the PPP can disguise the fact that it is no more than a glorified scam that transforms public money into guaranteed, risk-free profits for private shareholders.

"The infraco consortiums are made up of the very companies thrown off maintenance on the national railway network for efficiency and safety reasons. Why between them they are allowed to continue ripping off taxpayers and farepayers to the tune of £2 million a week is beyond me.

"Worst of all, the PPP has fragmented and undermined the Tube’s safety culture. The PPP has failed, and the time has come for the Government to bring forward the necessary legislation to scrap it."

Posted on 12:12 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 16 2006

"Your gravy train ends here"

INFRASTRUCTURE WORK on London Underground should be brought back in-house because the part-privatisation is simply incapable of delivering the improvements expected of it, the Tube’s biggest union says today.

As a report by the PPP Arbiter today concluded that neither of Metronet's BCV and SSL infrastructure companies had performed in line with the standard required of them, RMT renewed its call for the PPP to be scrapped.altogether.

"Failure is built into the very fabric of the PPP and it has to be ended," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"The Transport Select Committee and three successive TfL reports have all highlighted the failure of the PPP to deliver the improvements that London Underground needs and Londoners have every right to expect.

"The PPP Arbiter has now also confirmed that Metronet is significantly behind schedule delivering on station improvements, is responsible for poor delivery of track maintenance and renewals, and is underperforming in asset management and, most worryingly, risk management.

"No amount of tinkering around the edges of the PPP can disguise the fact that it is no more than a glorified scam that transforms public money into guaranteed, risk-free profits for private shareholders.

"The infraco consortiums are made up of the very companies thrown off maintenance on the national railway network for efficiency and safety reasons.

"Why between them they are allowed to continue ripping off taxpayers and farepayers to the tune of £2 million a week is beyond me.

"Worst of all the PPP has fragmented and undermined the Tube's safety culture.
"The PPP has failed, and the time has come for the government to bring forward the necessary legislation to scrap it," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 05:49 PM | Permalink

BBC News: 16 November 2006

Transport police have claimed a 35% drop in trouble on rail services in the Pontypridd area since six community support officers began operating.

The team of support officers is based at Pontypridd station

The team, based at a police station at Pontypridd railway station, have held almost 1,000 rail-based day and evening patrols in the last six months.

Incidents dealt with range from assaults to drunken behaviour.

Enterprise Minister Andrew Davies will officially open the police station on Pontypridd's platform one later.

Last year, the transport union RMT warned violence on the railways in Wales was reaching "civil unrest" proportions, with incidents including attacks on train staff, bricks being thrown through windows and gang fights spilling onto trains.

"We're well settled in now - they have learnt the geography and the timetables - it's definitely working" - BTP Acting Sergeant Dave Morris

In February this year, watchdog group Passenger Focus said rail passengers were more worried about their safety at stations in Wales than in the rest of the UK.

The community support officers (CSO) at Pontypridd are part of a network of 21 recruited to work on rail services across Wales.

The CSOs, and the new police station at Pontypridd railway station, are part of a £600,000 initiative jointly funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, Arriva Trains Wales and British Transport Police.

Six CSOs have been based at Pontypridd since May, covering the Rhondda, Cynon and Merthyr Valleys.

'Fear and apprehension'

British Transport Police Acting Sergeant Dave Morris said the team had conducted 983 uniformed patrols at stations, along railway lines and on train services in the three valleys to provide "high visibility patrols to reassure the public and rail staff".

He said: "One of the biggest problems is congregations of youths late at night with no intention of travelling.

"Some of them are [have been drinking] alcohol. They tend to cause a little bit of fear and apprehension to the travelling public. Some of them to tend to be abusive and throw beer cans around.

"Since we've been operating, we've ejected some 460 people at stations who had no intention to travel."

He said initial figures had shown a 35% reduction in report incidents, ranging from alcohol-related disorder through to assaults, from May to November this year compared to the same six-month period in 2005.

He added: "We're well settled in now. They have learnt the geography and the timetables. It's definitely working."

The new station is located in a former office donated by Arriva Trains Wales.

A spokeswoman said the Pontypridd base placed the British Transport Police patrols at the "heart of the valleys rail network".

She said: "They're known faces on our network. They're people the customers and staff recognise and passengers can approach them if they need to do so."

Posted on 01:41 PM | Permalink

MOBILISE FOR LOBBY AND PUBLIC MEETING.
LONDON LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE,
STRATFORD - 25th NOVEMBER 2006

LOBBY - 8.30 – 930 Stratford Old Town Hall, 29 the Broadway
PUBLIC MEETING - 12.30 – 2.00, East London Centre, Boardman House, 64 Broadway
Speakers include,
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary,
Manuel Cortes, TSSA Assistant General Secretary
Refreshments Provided

The joint RMT, TSSA, TUC Campaign is gathering pace and the campaign has today written a joint letter to MPs, GLA Members, TFL Board Members and East London Line Councillors urging them to lobby the Mayor to oppose the privatisation of the London Underground East London Line.

The letter warns,

“…if the decision is not reversed the East London Line will become the first tube passenger service to be privatised. This has raised real concerns that this could be the thin end of the wedge, making it easier to argue for the privatisation of more tube lines in the future…”

The campaign has the backing of the TUC who voted unanimously for the East London Line to be kept in the public sector.

Thousands of campaign postcards to be sent to the Mayor have been distributed and there has been a hugely positive feedback from passengers in response to the leafleting of tube stations, echoing the RMT commissioned MORI poll which found that three quarters of people in London and the South East believe the line should stay in the public sector.

Sympathetic MPs agree and will shortly table a new parliamentary motion which will argue,

“…the benefits of an extended East London Line will be best achieved by the service remaining wholly in the public sector…”

The next stage of the campaign is the London Labour Party Conference on 25th November at Stratford. Please do all you can to attend the public meeting at lunchtime - it is vital that we have a big turnout to demonstrate the strength of feeling on this issue. If you can, please also attend the morning lobby where we will be publicising the meeting and our message to Labour Party delegates.

Please pass this message on to your workmates, family and friends.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 01:50 AM | Permalink

The Times: November 14, 2006
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

DOZENS of schemes to ease congestion and improve punctuality on the railways are being delayed because Network Rail is failing to spend the tens of millions of pounds granted by the Government.

The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) accused the company yesterday of dragging its feet and failing to fulfil its commitments, leaving passengers to endure severe overcrowding on many routes.

Network Rail compiled a list of 171 urgent projects but could name only five where work had begun.

The company spent only £4 million last year of its £50 million annual budget for small schemes costing up to £5 million, such as extra platforms at cramped stations, a second track on single-track sections of line and new junctions to allow trains to cross at higher speeds.

This year Network Rail plans to spend £26 million, leaving a total of £70 million unspent over the two years.

The money was awarded by the Government in response to rapidly increasing demand for passenger and freight services. More than a billion rail journeys were made last year, the highest number since 1958, when the network was twice the size.

In its quarterly report on Network Rail’s performance, the ORR said: “Network Rail’s delivery of some investment schemes, particularly small-scale schemes, is lagging well behind both its own plans and industry expectations.”

The ORR demanded that Network Rail produce a clear delivery programme identifying specific schemes and giving completion dates.

It said part of the problem was Network Rail’s insistence that all spending on even the smallest schemes should be approved by a single committee.

Michael Lee, the ORR’s head of monitoring, said: “It all has to go through the centre across one committee. I don’t think it’s sustainable in the long run. They need to get their skates on.”

Network Rail has started work on capacity improvements at Peterborough, Coventry, Basingstoke, Tunbridge Wells and Tyseley, near Birmingham.

But many of the most urgently needed schemes are still at the planning stage, such as extra platforms at Manchester Airport and Bristol Parkway, extra tracks on the Waterloo to Exeter line, and lengthening platforms at Bexleyhill, Sidcup and Dartmouth to allow 12-car trains.

Passenger Focus, the rail passenger watchdog, described Network Rail’s progress as disappointing.

Anthony Smith, its chief executive, said: “These schemes involve relatively small amounts of money but would make a big difference to passengers by relieving bottlenecks. In many cases they would put back the capacity which British Rail was forced to strip out to reduce costs.

“It takes time to work up schemes but we will be very concerned if this level of underspending continues.”

Network Rail said it planned to increase its spending on capacity improvements next year and the year after that.

COULD DO BETTER

Main findings by the Office of Rail Regulation:

# Train delays caused by infrastructure rose for the past four consecutive months compared with the same months last year

# Points failures have risen by 7 per cent in the first six months of this year

# Delays caused by faults in overhead lines and third rails rose by 25 per cent 80 per cent of passengers are happy with their rail journey but only 50 per cent are satisfied with station facilities

# Rail workers suffered 175 serious injuries in the first nine months this year compared with 332 in 2005

Posted on 08:57 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 13 November 2006

Network Rail has been fined £130,000 and a sub-contractor £33,000 for the death of a worker who was hit by a train near Edinburgh in April 2005.

A worker was hit by a train near Edinburgh in April 2005

Scotweld Employment Services and Network Rail both admitted breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

Ian Gilmour was struck by a train at the Newbridge junction on 5 April.

The sheriff accepted that both companies had co-operated to ensure the accident would not be repeated.

The court heard how Network Rail had failed to ensure that track inspections were planned and carried out properly and safely by ordering a site safety controller and lookouts at short notice.

Three employees were exposed to unnecessary risks.

The company failed to provide Scotweld with a safety pack which gave details of the risks and hazards of the operation.

Scotweld, the court was told, had failed to request the safety pack. It also exposed three employees to unnecessary risks.

'Severe injury'

In both cases procedures were informal and poorly documented.

Fining the companies, Sheriff Andrew Lothian said both companies had made efforts to ensure that there would be no further accidents.

However, the sheriff added: "There was a failure to do what should have been done and what could earlier have been done, creating an unnecessary risk of severe injury or death".

Sheriff Lothian said there had been a fatality but that was not a matter for the court at this stage.

There could be a fatal accident inquiry in the future.

See also:

Rail operator fined £130,000 over worker's death

The Scotsman: 14 Nov 2006

NETWORK Rail has been fined £130,000 following the first death of a track worker in Scotland for more than a decade.

Scotweld, a Glasgow-based sub-contractor, was also fined £33,000 for the incident, for which the two firms admitted health and safety breaches over the death of Ian Gilmour in April last year.

Mr Gilmour, who was acting as a lookout for a team of workers, was struck by a train at Newbridge junction on the main Edinburgh-Glasgow line, just west of the capital.

Fining the companies at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, the sheriff, Andrew Lothian, said there had been "a failure to do what should have been done and what could earlier have been done, creating an unnecessary risk of severe injury or death".

However, the sheriff accepted both firms had done their best to address the deficiencies and ensure it would not happen again.

Network Rail said it accepted the court's findings. A spokeswoman said: "The safety of colleagues and passengers is our number one priority and tragic incidents such as this should not happen. Network Rail's working practices have been amended to reflect recommendations made by the Rail Safety and Standards Board [which investigated the accident]. We are committed to doing everything we can to protect the safety of our colleagues and the travelling public."

Posted on 08:30 AM | Permalink

The Office of the Rail Regulator has published the second edition of the National Rail Review, which covers UK rail industry developments up to and including the second quarter of 2006-07. Chapter 3 covers Rail industry worker safety.

3. Health and safety

• This section covers the wider rail industry, including underground, light rail, heritage or tram services. This reflects the wider remit of our health and safety responsibilities. Please note that safety data is collated on a calendar year basis.

Background information

• Some of the risks to railway employees are comparable to other industries, but there are significant differences. These are due to the hazards in trackside and depot locations from moving trains and electrification.

• The most dangerous location is on or about the railway line. Track workers suffer over half of all fatal injuries to railway employees.

• Provisional figures for 2006 (1 January to 30 September) show 6 fatalities and 175 major injuries. The trend for fatalities, measured per 100,000 employees, appears to be level or rising. Based on the provisional data, the trend for major injuries is falling. Fatalities and major injuries to Network Rail employees have been falling since 2004,

• Figures for minor injuries are shown in Fig. 3.3 on the next page. Minor injuries resulting in staff being unfit to work for more than three days are reported as ‘over 3 day injuries’. They are also known as ‘lost time’ injuries. The data notes for definitions of the three types of reportable incident.

Rail industry worker safety –continued

• The provisional number of over 3 day injuries during 2006 (1 January to 30 September) is 1,195. This suggests that the full year figure will be less than in recent years. There have also been fewer over 3 day injuries to Network Rail staff during 2006. It seems that, despite the rise during 2005, the incidence of over 3 day injuries is on a declining longer-term trend.

• In summary, there are encouraging trends of reducing major and minor injuries. However, more needs to be done to continue to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries.

Delivering HMRI strategic aims for worker safety

We aim to further reduce the number of injuries by:

• focusing Her Majesty’s Railway Inspectorate (HMRI) work on the most critical topics (mainly the risks to track workers and shunters from moving trains) while ensuring that employers pay proportionate attention to lower risks;

• using our expertise to gauge duty holders’ understanding of, and improvement of, human factors and safety culture which can lead to non-compliance with rules and other provisions that control risks to workers;

• championing an improved supervisory culture within the industry;

• encouraging the industry to streamline and modernise procedures to reduce the “bureaucracy of safety”;

• encouraging stakeholders to explore technological advances that can better protect staff; and

• promoting asset management systems that reduce the need for unplanned, or poorly planned, work on or near the track.

Current industry and HMRI initiatives

• Network Rail has several initiatives underway that aim, among other things, to improve safety, including: awareness of hazards in the workplace; safety culture; and safety leadership and safety on the line. Other initiatives are in the early stages of delivery such as: Communication; Behaviours; Competence Assessment; and Possessions. Steady improvements are happening but there is more that can be done.

• Several train operators have campaigns to reduce lost working time accidents for staff. Their aim is a 50% reduction in days lost. They are also working to reduce violence against staff and are participating in Network Rail’s programme to improve safety critical communications.

• A freight train operator has introduced and is trialling new shunting practices which may reduce the risk to shunters. These are at a very early stage and we will be inspecting the new practices.

• We have inspections assignments underway covering shunting, violence to staff and a range of other issues.

Summary of fatalities for July –September 2006

Location Details:
Dagenham, Essex
A shunter who had been engaged in a freight shunting movement, controlled by radio, involving coupling a class 47 locomotive and a single wagon was found lying adjacent to the siding from which the train had just moved.

Bronwydd Arms Station, Carmarthenshire
A Class 03 locomotive was being used to add an additional carriage to a train. The move was controlled by hand signals. The diesel and coach shunted on to the main line and during the operation to couple up with the main train the guard of the train was trapped between the carriage and the train. He sustained fatal injuries as a result.

Deal, Kent
An engineering train was stopped at a possession limits board after reports from a handsignaller that smoke was coming from under the train. The driver was seen to climb between two wagons and then seen to slump to the ground. Possible electrocution after coming into contact with electrified third rail.

Bodmin, Cornwall
During the course of a crane’s annual inspection, the insurance inspector became trapped between a jib and a cable drum winch while the crane was being operated.

Posted on 09:35 PM | Permalink

Globes Israel business news: November 13, 2006

Before Israel’s independence in 1948, the Jezreel Valley rail line ran from Haifa to Jordan and Damascus.

“European countries are proposing financing the Jezreel Valley rail line from Haifa to Amman, using the old Hejaz railway route,” said Ministry of Transport Gideon Siterman during a meeting with Jordan’s Ambassador to Israel Ali Al-Ayed. Ministry of Transport Shaul Mofaz also attended the meeting. The parties also discussed building a joint Eilat-Aqaba airport.

Before Israel’s independence in 1948, the Jezreel Valley rail line ran from Haifa to Jordan and Damascus, and the track is still in place. A few years ago, it was decided to rebuild the line, although it has not yet been budgeted. The recent cut in the Israel Railways budget has delayed matters even more. European funding would probably give the plan a boost.

The idea for a joint Eilat-Aqaba airport came up after Eilat’s mayor demanded that the present Eilat Airport be moved because it blocked the city’s development. Alternatives to a joint airport include proposals for a new airport at Timna or Beer Ora.

Posted on 09:23 PM | Permalink

Associated Press: November 13, 2006

CAPE TOWN, South Africa: A train collided with a truck pulling a trailer packed with farm workers at a railway crossing near Cape Town on Monday morning, killing 19 people and injuring eleven, authorities said.

The dead and injured, who worked for a local wine farm, were all on the truck and trailer.

In a statement, the Railway Safety Regulator said preliminary investigations suggested the truck driver had ignored warning signals at the level crossing, leading to the collision. It said 19 people were killed and 11 injured. The South African Press Association had earlier quoted paramedics as saying that 27 people were killed. It was no immediately possible to resolve the discrepancy.

"It was a horrible sight," a commuter train passenger identified as Ray Weyer told South African radio.

He said passengers on the train heard a bang and saw smoke. They all descended from the train and walked toward the nearest station.

"I saw a truck in front of the train and there were a few bodies in front of it," he said. He said the train driver was "in a terrible state" and told them he didn't know what had happened.

Metrorail, which operates the commuter service, said the accident happened at 7:16 a.m. (0516 GMT) "when a truck and trailer carrying some 30 farm workers collided with Cape Town-bound train 3208" just outside the suburb of Somerset West.

"According to witnesses, the truck stalled at the crossing," the company said in a statement.

It said the level crossing did not have barriers but did have warning signs.

The Railway Safety Regulator said it was concerned about the "prevalence of accidents at level crossings." Many crossings, especially in more remote areas, do not have physical barriers.

Posted on 09:27 AM | Permalink

Al-Sabaah Newspaper: Nov. 13, 2006

Baghdad -- The Ministry of Trade is determined to reactivate Iraqi railways lines to transport large quantities of imported wheat from Um Qasar Port to a number of Iraqi provinces after a halt that has lasted for the past few years.

The information spokesman of the ministry confirmed to as-Sabah newspaper that the State Seed Trading Company, belonging to the ministry has put in its plan for next year 2007, using the railway in coordination with the transport ministry to transport 50 tonnes of the imported wheat monthly from Um Qasar Port, in southern Iraq to a number of the company's warehouses.

Posted on 09:10 AM | Permalink

libcom.org: 11/11/2006
Jef Costello

Job losses, worsened working conditions and fear of privatisation led to strikes across France last Wednesday.

The strike, from 8pm Tuesday 7th to 8am on Thursday 9th, was called by six of the eight railworkers' unions.

The observance of the strike was 26.8% according to the SNCF and 28.2% according to the unions. This was higher than the last strike, on 22nd November 2005, but less than previous strikes. Readers should bear in mind, however, that in France only around 10% of workers are union members.

As can be seen from the following statistics the service was heavily affected:
* TGV1 - 2/3 trains running to or from Paris, but only 1/3 outside, No trains running in or out of Lille
* CORAIL - 1/3 trains running with no night service on national routes.
* TER - only 1/2 trains running.
* Transilien - 1/2 trains
* RER - B less than 40% of trains running.
CORAIL - national and international routes; TER, regional rail network; Transilien, regional network in the north of France; RER the five (A to E) suburban rail lines in the Paris area

There have been 7,000 job losses over the last 3 years and the management is currently planning another restructuring of the service.

The unions have also criticised the closure of stations, tracks and cancelling of routes.
French Railways were recently opened to competition and due to its better working conditions SNCF is losing ground to its competitors, although SNCF workers are more productive than their privatised counterparts.

The workers fear SNCF FRET is being wound down or prepared for privatisation, the attempts of management to end collective bargaining is seen as a first attempt to break up the network as well as a simple attack on workers' conditions.

The unions have issued a list of demands:

* An end to irreversible decisions reducing the capacity of SNCF FRET
* A commitment that SNCF FRET will not be privatised.
* A commitment to develop SNCF FRET and the provision of sufficient means to do so.
* An end to job losses.
* Planned hiring for 2006 should take place immediately.
* A programme of recruitment should be set in place for the years to come.
* The entire network should be respected, including the maintenance of non-profitable routes.
* Immediate hiring of 1500 workers to handle the increase in rail travel (passenger) and the needs of the SNCF FRET service.
* An increase in salary and pension provisions of 1.8%

Posted on 08:47 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No. IR248/06: November 9 2006

Dear Colleague,
It has been brought to my attention that managers in some areas are proposing 35 hour week rosters that involve minutes being shaved off each turn rather than the one hour reduction in the working week being taken in the form of banked rest days.

I would remind you that it has always been the union's intention that members should benefit from the 35 hour week by having more quality time off. Indeed, Network Rail themselves accepted this during this year's pay negotiations. A letter from the company to me dated 14th June 2006 said that from 31st December there would be "full implementation of the 35 hour week with revised rosters and rest days for rostered employees" (my emphasis).

It has also been reported to me that in at least one location, rosters have been drawn up by management that involve a reduction in annual leave entitlement. I have raised this with the company who have confirmed that annual leave will continue to be calculated based on the existing matrix for the 36 hour week, i.e. there should be no reduction.

I trust that local representatives will find this information of use when negotiating the new rosters.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 08:44 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No. IR245/06: November 8 2006

Dear Colleague,
Q12 STAFF SURVEY - NETWORK RAIL - NO COMPULSION

According to Network Rail, Q12 is a staff survey, conducted once a year, "which all employees are invited to participate in, of individual's opinions which helps to identify strengths and areas for improvement within the person's team". Q12 was developed by the Gallop Organisation who administer the survey on behalf of Network Rail.

At a meeting with the company last year the union's representatives were given assurances that completion of the survey is an entirely voluntary matter. I am therefore concerned at reports I have recently received, from both Ops and maintenance members, indicating that pressure is being put on individuals by managers to complete the survey.

For example, a manager in the Lancs & Cumbria Area circulated a memorandum stating "I do not consider this to be a voluntary survey and I am asking each of you to complete and return the form". At another location maintenance staff were told to return to their depot early from the track to complete the survey. All staff who completed the survey were allowed to leave 2-3 hours early while those who did not had to remain on site until their booked time. It has been suggested to me that managers have been instructed to boost the percentage, not only of surveys returned, but also of favourable results recorded in the survey.

I have taken up this matter with the company and in the meantime would remind members that completion of the survey is entirely a voluntary matter for each individual.

Yours sincerely,

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 08:40 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No. IR0243/06: November 8 2006

Dear Colleague,
I have written to Network Rail raising a number of concerns and informing them that should we not receive the proper assurances, we will not be supporting the introduction of Heavy Maintenance gangs.

Mini renewals activity near Peterborough indicates that the role of Heavy Maintenance overlaps considerably with that of Track Renewals, and this could have an adverse impact on our renewals members. Two questions were put to Network Rail:

1. Are you seeking to create an in house ability to carry out renewals activity?
2. By doing so, are you seeking to undermine our track renewals members' rights under TUPE?

I raised a number of other concerns with regard to Network Rail's attitude to Renewals work. We are currently in a position where contractors are at some times offered large amounts of work, and at other times very little, and in the meantime work continues to be given to outside contractors. There is also a belief that the current strategy towards renewals work is being driven by a need to cut costs and that vital investment is being lost.

In Guide Bridge there is currently a situation whereby RMT members employed by Jarvis Rail are facing redundancy because their work is finished. I have demanded that these workers have the opportunity to transfer into Network Rail.

The issue of Heavy Maintenance is currently being examined by the GGC and I reiterate my previous instruction that representatives should under no circumstances under into consultation on this matter until further notice.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 08:35 PM | Permalink

Financial Times: Dec 11, 2006
By Heba Saleh

After decades of neglect and underinvestment, Egypt's railway system is set to receive a radical overhaul in response to anger over a series of accidents in recent years which left hundreds dead.

In August, 58 people were killed and scores injured when a Cairo-bound passenger train travelling at high speed ploughed into the back of another in a station in the Delta. The driver of the incoming train had failed to stop, apparently because he had been given the wrong signal.

Barely two weeks later, two trains collided head on killing two people and injuring dozens. The explanation this time was that, in that area of the Nile Delta, robbers had repeatedly stolen the overhead cables used for signalling.

The collisions and the loss of life brought back memories of unfulfilled government promises to make the railways safe after a horrific fire on an overnight train to upper Egypt killed 370 people in 2002. That disaster had focused attention on the state of the railways and given rise to demands for an overhaul of a system used every day by 1.4 m people, most of them poor.

The job of fixing Egypt's decrepit railway system has fallen to Mohamed Mansour, a tycoon who was appointed transport minister in January in a bid to bring private business expertise to the disaster-ridden sector. Mr Mansour had warned parliament in June that the railways needed massive investment to improve safety and reverse the effects of 50 years of neglect.

In the aftermath of the August crash, the government approved an immediate allocation of $860m to upgrade the crumbling rail infrastructure and it made available another $600m in loans.

"This is just to get us started," says Mr Mansour. "We are going to need over the next five years another E£10bn ($1.7bn) .We forecast E£2bn of capital expenditure every year. This can't be a cut and paste job, it will be a comprehensive, long and detailed project."

Mr Mansour says he has engaged international consultants to look into the reorganisation of the railways and advise on safety, rolling stock, signalling and human resources.

Egypt has 5,000 kilometres of track, only 15 per cent of which are electrified. But even the electrified segments, according to Mr Mansour, arouse safety concerns because they rely on equipment installed 40 years ago. In the Egyptian system, signalmen and their ability to communicate with train drivers are key to security. Many of the collisions of the past have been blamed on human error such as an absent signalman or a tired driver.

To reduce the likelihood of accidents over the short term, Mr Mansour has cut the frequency of trains until improvements can be made. He says it will be two years before Egyptians feel a difference to the service.

Decades of under funding and poor maintenance have taken a heavy toll on the locomotive fleet with only 330 out of 700 locomotives in working order. The ministry has tendered for 30 new locomotives, the first batch of the 100 it plans to buy.

But it will take more than new hardware to solve the many problems of the railways. The minister says staff will be retrained and steps are being taken to improve pay and conditions. The system of rewarding drivers according to distances travelled will be reviewed because it encourages speeding and disregard for safety.

The government also plans to reduce the financial burden on the loss-making railway authority, which has been subsidising passengers for decades.

According to the minister, 36 categories of passengers, including students, the army and the police, are entitled to cheap tickets which means the railways lose about $122m a year. Mr Mansour says the government has agreed to pay back the subsidy from the budget, rather than hide it in the railway authority's books.

Beyond improving safety, the challenge for Mr Mansour is to generate revenue for the railways in an environment where raising ticket prices is difficult and privatisation politically impossible.

He says he is hoping the railways will break even in five years, after overhauling the infrastructure, laying new lines, boosting freight capacity and entering into public-private partnerships for the construction of lines serving the tourist trade. But experts caution that relying on foreign expertise to overhaul the system, without a policy to develop local capability will not lead to success.

"In my view there is no Egyptian capability in this sector, neither in planning, execution, maintenance or operation," says Mamdouh Hamza, who heads Hamza Associates, one of Egypt's foremost engineering companies.

He was asked by the minister a few months ago to examine the Qena-Safaga line to determine if it was suitable for transporting tourists from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea coast. Mr Hamza concluded it was "outside the limits of safe, efficient, convenient and economic operation for passengers at any level".

For too long, he argues, the railway authority has been closed in on itself, refusing to deal with outside consultants and relying solely on its own underpaid engineers to plan, execute and assess new projects. With no market for the skills of railway specialists, he says, railway engineering has shrivelled up and in all the Egyptian universities there is only one expert teaching the subject.

That, according to Mr Hamza, is a shortfall that needs to be addressed quickly. "The ministry should announce tomorrow that it is funding 30y scholarships for young engineers to go and study railways in European universities," says Mr Hamza.

Posted on 07:43 AM | Permalink

The Sunday Times: November 12, 2006

The railway is on schedule to be completed in a year’s time.

A NEW NAME in rail transport will be launched in Britain this week when the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is renamed High Speed 1. In a year’s time it will start carrying high-speed services from London’s St Pancras station to Paris and Brussels.

Speed is what the new route is all about. Constructed at a cost of £5.8 billion, it is the first mainline railway built in Britain for more than a century. Eurostar trains have run from London since 1994, but have had to slow down in England to crawl across busy commuter lines. With the opening of the new link, they will run at the same speed as on France’s TGV tracks — 186mph.

Trips between London and Paris will take two hours 15 minutes, 20 minutes faster than the current quickest time — itself a 15-minute improvement on the original Eurostar journey thanks to the opening three years ago of the first section of the high-speed line, from the Channel tunnel to Fawkham junction, Kent. The second section runs from Fawkham across the Thames and into central London (through tunnels) from the east.

Rob Holden, chief executive of London & Continental Railways (LCR), the consortium that has built the line, said the name change signalled that construction was coming to an end and the first passenger services were only a year away.

“Channel Tunnel Rail Link is a bit of a mouthful and the initials CTRL don’t mean much to anyone who isn’t familiar with the project. We wanted to change the name, and high-speed rail has positive connotations here and in the rest of Europe,” he said.

The new name poses the question whether there might be a High Speed 2 in the pipeline, and whether LCR might want to build it.

High-speed rail is at the forefront of the current debate about transport and climate change in Britain. Iain Coucher, deputy chief executive of Network Rail, has proposed a north-south high-speed line to relieve pressure on the existing network. Sir Rod Eddington, the former chief executive of British Airways, is expected to publish his long-awaited report on transport at the end of the month, and may also back new high-speed lines.

If a new line was ordered, LCR would be an obvious candidate to construct it. Holden said the company had built up a great deal of expertise and it would be a shame to lose it. “There is a lot of experience here that could be extremely useful if the government decided to proceed. We can’t be involved in speculative development, but we are pro high-speed rail for the UK,” he said.

But if the government is to take advantage of LCR’s expertise, it will need to move quickly. Holden said his team would be ready “to step into a new railway” in 12-18 months, but beyond that the nucleus of experienced people would be dispersed. “The skills they have are transferable, and by then they will have the opening of this railway on their CVs, which will make them very marketable.”

The hype around this week’s launch of High Speed 1 will obscure some of the big questions about the rail link — such as whether it should have been built at all.

A House of Commons public accounts select committee concluded earlier this year that the economic case for its construction was “marginal”, because the number of passengers using Eurostar services is much lower than originally forecast.

When bidding for the project in 1996, LCR — a consortium comprising Bechtel, UBS, Arup, Halcrow, Electricite de France, National Express and SNCF — forecast 21m passengers a year by 2004. The actual number has turned out to be one-third of that. This year Eurostar will carry about 8.5m.

Holden said the original forecasts were “just wrong”. “When I arrived here I said — ‘so, everyone in the south of England is going to make multiple trips every year to Paris and Brussels? I don’t think so.’”

The truth dawned two years into the project and led to a financial crisis. LCR had to be bailed out by the government.

This in turn prompted much soul-searching by transport officials. Scarred by their experience on the Jubilee Line extension, which ended up late and £1.4 billion over budget, they had resolved not to entrust the management of the high-speed rail line to the public sector. By choosing LCR, they had thought the risk of cost-overruns had been avoided — only to find the solution blowing up in their face.

In revealing comments to the select committee last year, David Rowlands, then permanent secretary at the Department for Transport, said that next year the department planned to re-evaluate its handling of the project. “We would probably want to re-visit it quietly and hide it in a drawer in case of FOI (the Freedom of Information Act) . . . but there are lessons to be learnt.”

The solution was for the government to give LCR an extra £1 billion, and to issue bonds to finance the project. Railtrack was brought in to carry the cost-overruns — another clever solution that backfired when the company collapsed into administration in 2001.

Holden maintains that the public accounts committee, and the National Audit Office, have found it difficult to quantify the project’s regeneration benefits. As well as the international trains, the new line will carry domestic services that will sprint to Ashford in Kent in 26 minutes.

LCR believes the link will bring £10.5 billion of extra investment for regeneration. The big schemes are at three sites: in the brownfield land north of King’s Cross station, where developer Argent plans 50 new buildings and 30,000 new jobs; at Stratford, where Westfield plans a £4 billion development including 7,000 new homes; and at Ebbsfleet, where 3,000 new homes will be built.

“When the project began, the priorities were the international services, the domestic services and regeneration. Now it is the other way round. Regeneration is No1 and then take your pick,” said Holden.

And despite LCR’s interesting history, it can at least claim to have avoided the curse of most big projects in Britain and to have delivered on time and to budget. Under the terms of its funding agreement with the government, the line will be on time as long as it opens before the end of the first week in January 2008 — and while the expected cost of £5.8 billion is more than the £5.3 billion target, it is with- in the available financing of £6.1 billion. An insurance facility put in place with Bechtel and a consortium of insurers to underwrite construction overruns was unlikely to be called on, said Holden.

As well as speeding passengers between London and the Continent, the new line has rejuvenated St Pancras station, London’s smartest terminal when it opened in 1868 but which had long been allowed to fall into decay. The most visible sign of the work to date has been the restoration of the Midland Grand Hotel, Sir George Gilbert Scott’s famous neo-Gothic pile on Euston Road.

But from next November, when the station behind the hotel reopens, travellers will be treated to another restored Victorian marvel — the St Pancras train shed built by William Barlow. Barlow’s name is less well-known than Brunel’s, but the train shed may change that. When it first opened, its 74- metre span made it the largest enclosed space in the world, and, with ironwork repainted in the original peacock blue and reglazed, it retains its “wow” factor.

Beneath the platforms is another Barlow gem, the station’s undercroft, originally used for storing Burton’s beer. It has been opened up as a passenger concourse, but the 900 original cast-iron pillars that support the platforms above remain in place — the spacing between them by repute dictated by the width of three beer barrels.

See also:

High-speed link 365 days away

The Independent: 13 November 2006
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor

The countdown to the opening of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link will begin tomorrow when the backers of the £5.8bn high-speed line announce that it will enter service in exactly a year.

The 68-mile link from Folkestone in Kent to London's St Pancras station, to be renamed High Speed One, will be Britain's first new railway line in a century and will cut journey times to Paris and Brussels by 20 minutes.

But a highly-critical report last year from the National Audit Office, the parliamentary spending watchdog, said the economic justification for the project remained "marginal". It also warned that taxpayers could have to foot an extra bill for £400m in addition to the £2bn of direct grants paid to its developer London & Continental Railways (LCR).

LCR and Eurostar, the main operator on the line, plan to increase frequencies and passenger numbers when the line enters service next November. Eurostar will carry around 8.5 million passengers this year. LCR will also say it is ready to build a second North-South high-speed line if ministers approve the plan put forward by Network Rail.

Eurostar believes that moving its main London terminus from the current location at Waterloo to St Pancras will open up a huge market north of London to rail travel to the Continent. The change would make travelling by raila much more attractive and environmentally sound option for passengers from as far afield as Derby, Birmingham and Sheffield.

Critics claim, however, that Eurostar will face stiff competition from low-cost airlines operating from regional airports. There are also fears that the closure of the Waterloo terminal would drive large numbers of Eurostar passengers in the south and west of London to switch to Heathrow.

From 2009, high-speed commuter trains will start using the new line, cutting the journey time from Ashford in Kent to central London to just 29 minutes. LCR claims that the line will create £10.5bn in re-generation benefits, which have not been taken into account in the NAO's assessment.

Posted on 12:31 AM | Permalink

The Guardian: November 11, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

Eurotunnel is threatening to sue the British government over its withdrawal of a multi-million pound subsidy to carry rail freight through the cross-Channel tunnel. Jacques Gounon, chief executive of the heavily indebted company, said it will take legal action if the Department for Transport stops payments worth £50m a year.

Eurotunnel believes the indirect subsidy is enshrined in an agreement between the company and the British Rail Board, now part of the DfT, to back the development of a rail freight market under the Channel. The DfT has said it will stop the subsidy to the rail freight operator EWS on November 30.

"If we have no agreement, Eurotunnel will sue the British state," said Mr Gounon. According to Eurotunnel, the deal was struck as part of the 65-year contract to run rail services through the tunnel, which opened in 1994. A rail freight market has struggled to develop at Eurotunnel, in part because of the failure of the French, German and Belgian rail operators to open a freight corridor to Calais.
Mr Gounon said the DfT had a legal as well as moral obligation to maintain the subsidy because Eurotunnel was encouraged to rack up huge debts to build the project with no financial input from the British or French governments. The company, which has debts of £6.2bn, applied for protection from its creditors in August.

"The states invited Eurotunnel to invest in the infrastructure. And they said as part of this we will fund you through the rail freight system. And then 20 years later they say it is too high a cost. Sorry, a contract is a contract," said Mr Gounon.

EWS has said it will have to abandon its service if the payments go, though Eurotunnel believes the lost freight will be transferred to its truck shuttles.

Posted on 10:43 PM | Permalink

The Associated Press: November 10, 2006

BAXTER, Calif. -- The bodies of two workers were recovered Friday from the smoldering wreckage of a derailed train, and investigators said the dead crew members had tried to stop the locomotive with emergency brakes as it barreled down a Sierra Nevada slope.

Thursday's derailment spilled thousands of gallons of fuel near a thick forest and sparked a fire that sent plumes of dense, black smoke into the air for several hours. The eight other crew members aboard the maintenance train suffered minor injuries.

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Authorities are seen near some of the derailed cars of a Union Pacific train near Baxter, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006

Crew members told authorities that the men who died had been working together to apply the train's brakes when it ran off the tracks in a ravine about 60 miles east of Sacramento.

The track runs straight and then curves where six of the train's 10 cars derailed.

Sheriff's Lt. Chal DeCecco, spokesman for the agencies at the scene, said crew members told investigators the train was passing through a tunnel when they noticed something amiss and tried to slow down about three miles before the crash site.

"If you look at the crash site, it looks like excessive speed was a factor," DeCecco said.

Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Railroad Administration were leading the investigation into Thursday's crash but declined to comment.

DeCecco said it would take until Monday to positively identify the dead workers. One body was recovered from a burned-out train car, while the other was underneath the tangle of fire-charred steel.

"It's just a tragedy," said Ken Julian, spokesman for Harsco Track Technologies, the South Carolina-based contractor that employed the victims and all but one of the other crew members. "We're going to do everything we can to support the families and get to the bottom of the cause."

Harsco owns the train, which was transporting a piece of maintenance equipment called a grinding machine under a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad. The lone Union Pacific employee aboard the train was the conductor.

The maintenance train's purpose is to smooth out worn-down sections of track. It was likened to a "rolling mechanic's shop," with a tanker carrying diesel fuel for the locomotive and the other rail cars carrying equipment and drums filled with an assortment of fuels and fluids.

Cleanup crews were clearing the tracks Friday, and the railroad hoped to restore full service on the busy east-west corridor over the weekend. A 600-foot section of track will have to be replaced, Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said.

Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Fish and Game also were on the scene, trying to keep spilled fuel from running into a tributary of the north fork of the American River.

Posted on 09:47 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 10 2006

MORE THAN 900 North Sea divers and support staff who have been on strike since November 1 have voted overwhelmingly to accept a pay package that will increase current rates by a cumulative 44.7 per cent over the next two years.

703 (84 per cent) voted to accept the deal, with 127 (16 per cent) against, on an 80 per cent turnout. The strike, now in its tenth day, will therefore end forthwith, with an orderly return to work beginning immediately.

The settlement gives an immediate increase of 25 (TWENTY-FIVE) per cent on all rates, with a further five per cent on the new rates next April, and increases in November 2007 and 2008 of RPI plus 1.5 per cent or five per cent, whichever is greater.

The seven employer signatories to the deal will all now pay eight bank holidays, up from four previously, and each has undertaken to agree proper bargaining structures with the union, although pay will continue to be negotiated collectively.

"By any standard this is a tremendous victory for a group of workers who have displayed grit, determination and complete solidarity in their campaign to win a fair pay increase," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"The strike was total from the first moment, and it is to our members' immense credit that not one diving support vessel was operational throughout the stoppage.

"Divers and their support crews do difficult and hazardous work in an industry that makes enormous profits, and this settlement represents a massive stride towards reversing the two decades of pay erosion they have endured.

"Nonetheless, there remain issues to be addressed, and the establishment of proper negotiating procedures with the seven companies provides the framework within which that can now be done.

"Our members in the North Sea came out as one, stood together through ten days of solid strike action, and can return to work proud that their unity has won a signifcant advance," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 12:18 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 10 2006

A BALLOT of more than 100 cleaners working for OCS on its Eurostar contract has begun following the company’s failure to improve a derisory pay offer that would leave earnings a long way short of a living wage.

The ballot of RMT members, who are being to be asked to vote to strike and for action short of strike, will close on November 21.

The union is campaigning for a minimum pay rate that matches London mayor Ken Livingstone's recommendation of a living wage of at least £7.05 an hour.

"OCS have been styled as a family firm, yet they are paying our members wages that no-one could hope to feed and clothe a family on," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Cleaners on as little as £5.50 an hour, even for nights, Sundays and bank-holiday work, are being offered a rise that works out at 20p an hour.

"The derisory increase on the table includes consolidation of a £10 weekly attendance bonus they already get, and would still leave pay rates well below a living wage.

"Eurostar is supposed to be a prestige railway, and in all conscience they cannot sit back and allow a contractor to pay the people who clean their trains and stations at poverty rates.

"OCS gave its highest-paid director an eight per cent increase last year - a £13,000 rise, alone worth more than a year's basic pay for people who go out there and do the work.

"I am sure that people who enjoy the facilities at the OCS Stand at the Oval would also be outraged to learn that the sponsorship money comes from the exploitation of cleaners paid at rates too low to live on," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 12:16 AM | Permalink

Due to errors on the ballot paper, the Council of Executives has decided to run this election again. Ballot papers will be re-issued on 13th November, and the ballot will close on 18th December.

It is very important that the re-issued ballot papers are completed and returned. Please don't think that, because you have already cast your vote once, you don't need to do it again. Please do all you can to persuade the people you work with to vote, so that Peter Skelly is elected to this important post.

If you have not received a ballot paper by 30th November, ring the RMT Helpline on 0800 376 3706 ( have your membership number ready) or contact your Branch Secretary.

VOTE PETER SKELLY
FOR RELIEF REGIONAL ORGANISER (SOUTH)
(Published by Bristol Rail, Bridgend and Llantrisant, Camden 3, Cardiff 7, Cardiff Rail, Exeter Rail, Jubilee S & E London Line, Gloucester, Mid-Cornwall, Pontypridd, Rhondda, & Westbury RMT branches)

Posted on 06:28 PM | Permalink

WEDNESDAY 29TH November
19.30
GWRSA STAFF CLUB, TEMPLE MEADS, BRISTOL

SPEAKERS: MICK CASH - RMT SENIOR ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY
PETER SKELLY- RMT CONVENOR, N. RAIL WESTERN TERRITORY
JOHN PAINTER - RMT REP, NETWORK RAIL AREA COUNCIL (P.WAY)

Your chance to air your views on
• Workplace problems
• Network Rail policies
• RMT organising for Network Rail members

Further details ring John Painter 07901 512228

Posted on 06:21 PM | Permalink

FGW On Trains Divisional Council - Sec: Dave Palmer

RMT On-Trains Divisional Council met FGW Trains Director, Kevin Gale on Thursday 9th November over the new catering strategy from the December 2006 timetable.

Cuts to Pullmans, Travelling Chef, Early and Late night Buffet & Trolley services were confirmed. FGW will introduce a brasserie service on some services in place of Pullman or Travelling Chef circuits.

On-Trains Divisional Council are shocked at the severity of FGW’s plans and made our comments accordingly.

As a result of our arguments RMT has secured:

• Reinstatement of a number of Buffet turns and a Pullman service.
• Any member displaced out of grade retains the higher rate of pay as per Promotion, Transfer & Redundancy Agreements PT&R.
• NO COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES amongst Catering grades

RMT members currently working on family friendly arrangements will be protected and supported by your union.

Diagrams, which we have still not seen, should be available from the middle of next week. We have expressed our disgust over late publication of the catering diagrams given the scale of changes announced.
Further talks will take Place.

All FGW Catering Staff need to be in RMT at this time. Speak to your colleagues - make sure they are in the union.
To Join the RMT - Britain’s leading transport union

Just talk to any RMT union representative, call Freephone
0800 376 3706 or visit
www.rmt.org.uk

Posted on 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

RMT: November 9 2006

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union has urged members of the Welsh Assembly to throw their weight behind the proposal to introduce direct rail services between Wrexham and London.

In a letter to AMs, RMT general secretary Bob Crow says the introdcution of a direct link would provide significant benefits to the Welsh economy and in tackling social exclusion.

"The Welsh Assembly government has taken a number of very positive steps in promoting the railways, and supporting this initiative will be consistent with its overall policy of growing the railways in Wales," Bob Crow says.

"Carbon emissions from rail are significantly less than from private car use. In the light of the recent Stern Report into climate change there is an overwhelming political consensus that more needs to be done to encourage people onto public transport.

"Supporting Wrexham-to-London rail services will send a clear public message that the Wales Assembly government is taking a lead in the battle to cut carbon emissions," the letter says.

"There is no doubt that five trains a day direct to and from London would bring significant economic benefits to Wrexham," local RMT branch secretary and councillor David Bithell said.

"Wrexham RMT branch has been campaigning hard behind the council's proposal to bring these rail services to our town

"This proposal is a winner in every way because it would secure sustainable transport links and a healthy future for rail in Wrexham, and would bring up to 50 new jobs to our town," David Bithell said.

Posted on 10:25 PM | Permalink

The East African: November 7, 2006

Nairobi -- Effectively, the two governments had been cornered because the joint commission had been led by the South Africans to a point where cancelling the deal was no longer a political option.

Rift Valley Railways's first train makes a ceremonial departure from Nairobi Railway Station
Picture: Fred Omondi

It has now emerged that the South African company Sheltam Pty has been allowed to take control of both the Kenya and Uganda Railways without handing over some $5 million it was to pay to the two governments under an agreement signed on April 7 this year.

Under the deal, Sheltam was to pay an "entry fee of $3 million to Kenya and $2 million to Uganda before taking over the running of the two companies.

Sources within the joint concessioning committee that has been negotiating on behalf of the two governments have confirmed to The EastAfrican that neither Uganda nor Kenya was paid.

According to the sources, neither did the South Africans fulfil the disbursement conditions that their international lenders had imposed. The documents confirming that this had been done, according to the April 7 agreement, were supposed to be finalised and given to the two governments for approval before the takeover.

The upshot is a situation where the concession has now commenced without an assurance of disbursement of the financing by the two main lenders of the project - namely, the International Finance Company (IFC) of the World Bank and KFW of Germany.

In the case of the Uganda contract, Sheltam has not acquired all the licences it was supposed to have before taking over as stipulated in the April agreement.

Whether this was a case of the South Africans buying time by outmanoeuvring the committee that has been negotiating on behalf of Uganda and Kenya or a genuine hitch is not clear.

According to informed sources, Sheltam explains away its failure to pay the entry fees on a last-minute pullout by one of its consortium members - Grindrod, a South African company and Sheltam's business partner in that country.

According to Sheltam, Grindrod had made a decision to join the consortium only five days before the closure of the transaction.

Consequently, it says, all agreements had been changed to reflect Grindrod's participation in the deal.

But on Wednesday last week, only five hours before the closure of the transaction, Sheltam managing director Roy Puffet informed the two governments that Grindrod had pulled out of the consortium.

The upshot of the pullout was that Sheltam was now able to pay neither the entry fee nor finalise the financial agreements as had been planned.

It is understood that the news about Grindrod's pullout was announced in Uganda when Mr Puffet was attending a party given in his honour by the Ugandan government.

Insiders said there had been explosive disagreements among the lawyers and the transaction advisers, with some of them calling for the cancellation of the deal if the $5 million payment was not made by Sheltam.

Whichever way one looks at it, the two South African companies, perhaps unwittingly, had got the Kenya and Uganda officials into a position where they could not negotiate.

Effectively, the two governments had been cornered because the joint commission had been led by the South Africans to a point where cancelling the deal was no longer a political option.

Up to the very last day, the South Africans had given no indication to the joint concessioning committee that they would not be able to pay the entry fee.

At one point - according to our sources - the two governments had been asked to send wiring instructions to Sheltam's bankers in South Africa so that the money could be sent.

On Tuesday night, top government officials of both Uganda and Kenya and the team the consultants hired to give advisory services to the two governments spent the night at the Treasury crafting separate agreements stipulating new conditions to allow Sheltam to take over without having to meet the conditions that had been stipulated in the April 7 agreement, including payment of the entry fee.

By Wednesday morning, the new agreements were ready, in time for the handing over celebrations at the headquarters of the Kenya Railways Corporation.

There was further drama at the venue of the celebration when journalists and invited guests were made to spend hours waiting for the function to begin.

The stage had been set for the celebrations and several tents had been pitched as early as 6 o'clock in the morning - complete with special seating for the Police Band brought there specifically to entertain guests and play the national anthems of both Uganda and Kenya.

In attendance at the venue of the celebrations were members of the diplomatic corps, CEOs of freight companies and employees of the Kenya Railways Corporation.

Anxiety started building when it became apparent that an event that was supposed to begin as early as 8 am had not started by midday.

At that point, guests and journalists gathered at the venue started to realise that something had gone terribly wrong between the South Africans and the two governments.

Anxiety gripped the guests as word began to spread around the venue that the event had been postponed due to a last-minute falling out between Sheltam and the joint concessioning committee.

Just after midday, as it became clear that the invited guests were becoming restive, a Ministry of Transport official intervened to request the guests to disperse, saying that he had been informed by Transport Permanent Secretary Prof Gerishon Ikiara that the event had been rescheduled for one o'clock.

But as it turned out, the ceremony was not to start until well after 5 pm.

What was going on behind the scenes and why the long delay?

It is still not clear what exactly happened. But one explanation is that it took many hours to persuade Finance Minister Amos Kimunya to accept a waiver of the conditions to the South African company.

How Sheltam will progress in running the company remains to be seen. The EastAfrican has learnt that the waivers given to the South Africans have many conditions attached to them.

Sources who have seen the new agreement say that the agreement has four major parts. First, Sheltam managing director Roy Puffet was made to admit in writing that he had been unable to raise the entry fees.

Second, Sheltam has been given up to December 15 to pay up and fulfil all the conditions stipulated in the April 7 contract or face termination of the concession agreement.

Third, until the South Africans pay up, Sheltam will be prohibited from transfer to itself any dividends or fees in the course of business.

Fourth, any expenditure above $250,000 can only be made with the approval of both the residual Kenya Railways Corporation and Uganda Railways.

Finally, Sheltam's principal shareholder, Mr Puffet, has been made to provide a personal guarantee securing the financial operations of the company.

In a conversation with The EastAfrican, Sheltam's transaction adviser, Vishal Aggarwal, denied that the deal was unfavourable for Kenya and Uganda, promising that the South African company will fulfil all the conditions in the stipulated time.

Posted on 04:27 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 8 November 2006

Rail workers are demanding more be done to tackle violence on trains and at stations across the north of England.

Violence is on the rise on trains and at stations, says the RMT

Staff at Northern Rail, which operates services across the region, are calling for a zero tolerance approach, according to the RMT union.

Demands include more staff, an increased police presence and greater support from managers.

Northern Rail said it was bucking national trends and had reduced assaults compared to 2005.

"Northern will not tolerate any act of violence or intimidation against any member of staff" - Northern Rail spokesman

The RMT petition, signed by conductors and station staff, calls for managers to be on hand late at night and at weekends to provide support and co-ordinate resources, and for stations to remain open until the departure of the last train.

It also calls for a ban on alcohol on some services.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "The statistics tell the sorry story of more and more violence against railway staff, particularly late at night and at weekends, and our members are telling Northern Rail that they have reached the end of the line.

"We will work with anyone who can help stop the violence - but Northern Rail really do not have the option of failing to respond positively to this campaign."

Mr Crow said there had been 109 physical assaults and 230 cases of threats and verbal abuse on Northern Rail staff this year, but that many more go unreported.

Swab kits

A Northern Rail spokesman said: "Northern will not tolerate any act of violence or intimidation against any member of staff and will seek the strongest penalty against any individual who threatens their safety."

He also said that Northern Rail worked closely with the British Transport Police (BTP), carried out specific operations to detect weapons, and had brought private prosecutions against offenders.

British Transport Police said officers worked closely with Northern Rail staff to tackle violence, and it had launched numerous schemes, such as issuing DNA swab kits to rail staff, and had a senior BTP officer seconded to Northern Rail since February.

Posted on 07:08 PM | Permalink

Bloomberg: Nov. 7
By Andreas Cremer and Brian Parkin

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her government still aims to sell a stake in the state-owned railway, Deutsche Bahn AG, even as her ruling coalition parties differ over whether to exclude track from the sale.

"We continue to stand by our goal to bring about a privatization of Deutsche Bahn,'' Merkel said in a speech to Germany's BDA employers' federation in Berlin today. "I believe this is important and right.''

The Social Democrats, one half of Merkel's coalition, want the government to retain ownership of the 30,000-kilometer (18,600-mile) network, allowing the railway to run the tracks for profit. Their partners from the Christian Democrats want the government to run the track, splitting it off completely from Deutsche Bahn. The row has threatened to delay selling the asset.

Merkel has indicated that she's prepared to give lawmakers more time to end their dispute. Transport Ministry officials and lawmakers will meet Nov. 8 to resume talks on the sale. The ruling coalition this week is fine-tuning next year's budget, including investment in the railway.

"In politics, some things take a bit longer than business leaders can imagine,'' Merkel told the conference.

Switching the Burden

Merkel has planned a railway IPO as early as 2008, hoping to help her budget and steadily start switching the burden of investment from taxpayers to shareholders. The Bahn has invested about 90 billion euros since 2000, some 40 percent supplied by taxpayers, according to the Transport Ministry.

Germany wants to avoid "at all costs'' copying the U.K.'s example in selling the railway, where service quality plummeted, Merkel said at a tourist conference in Berlin yesterday. "Fifty- one percent of the railway will stay with the state in any event,'' she said.

Deutsche Bahn Chief Executive Officer Hartmut Mehdorn, speaking in an interview in Berlin today, said the company will post its ``best-ever'' result this year and ``is ripe'' for a share sale.

"We have done our homework, we need a decision,'' Mehdorn said.

CDU transport experts such as Dirk Fischer want the track to be included in the stake that the constitution bars the government from selling. That may help competition and secure influence as taxpayers continue to inject cash into the railway after an IPO, Fischer has said.

Solution?

SPD lawmakers including Uwe Beckmeyer have sought a way out of the impasse by proposing that the government should ``lend'' the track to the Bahn to develop its business and to be permitted to include the asset in its annual statement.

Federal investment in track from 2007 to 2010 may total about 12.5 billion euros ($15.9 billion), Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said on Oct. 27. The railway is Germany's biggest incorporated investor, landowner and occupational trainer, according to its own calculations.

Taxpayers would also gain a negative return on their investment if tracks are bracketed with rolling stock in a sale, CDU lawmakers have said. A sale of 49 percent of the company may yield just 9 billion euros, its Mehdorn is cited as saying in an interview published on July 30 in Stern magazine.

Deutsche Bahn's competitors carry about 7 percent of Germany's rail freight and about 10 percent of the country's passenger traffic.

Posted on 06:30 PM | Permalink

EITB: 11/07/2006

Six of the eight rail workers' unions called for the strike to demand the reopening of pay negotiations with management. International links will be largely unaffected.

A planned strike by rail workers reduced traffic across France's train network from Tuesday to Thursday, but international links will be largely unaffected, state rail firm SNCF said.

Six of the eight rail workers' unions called for the strike, which is due to start on Tuesday evening, to demand the reopening of pay negotiations with management.

"Train traffic should be disrupted from Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 2000 hours (1900 GMT) because of a strike plan submitted by 6 trade unions," SNCF said in a statement.

Two thirds of high-speed TGV links with Paris were expected to be running, while only one third of TGV trains linking cities other than Paris would run, it said.

International traffic would be "virtually normal", it said, with a normal service on the Eurostar link between Paris and London but only two thirds of TGV trains running between France and Italy during the day.

Regional links and the RER rail service which shuttles millions of people between Paris and its suburbs would also be hit, SNCF said. The strike is due to end on Thursday at 0700 GMT.

Posted on 04:06 AM | Permalink

Bloomberg: November 6, 2006
By Richard Blackden

The U.K. should scrap its system for awarding rail franchises because it has failed to improve services and will struggle to cope with a projected increase in passengers, a committee of lawmakers said.

Handing out franchises to train operators, first introduced when state-owned railways were sold off in 1993, hasn't led to more innovation or shifted enough financial risk from taxpayers to private companies, a report by the House of Commons Transport Committee said.

The criticism comes as the Department for Transport has cut the number of franchises by a quarter to 19 this year to increase cooperation between the train operators and Network Rail, the government-backed owner of the tracks and stations.

"Passenger rail franchising, far from being a model capable of delivering quality rail services for the next half century, appears to be a policy muddle,'' the committee, headed by Gwyneth Dunwoody, a Labour Party lawmaker, wrote.

While criticizing the franchising system, the report doesn't suggest an alternative way of running the railways. Instead, it recommends increasing the average length of a franchise to 15 years to encourage operators to invest.

The franchises are currently run by seven companies, including FirstGroup Plc, National Express Group Plc, Stagecoach Group Plc and billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Rail Group Ltd.

"The claim that the current franchising policy is a `muddle' is just not true,'' George Muir, director of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said in an e-mailed statement. "The huge growth in passenger numbers would not have happened without franchising.''

The number of journeys taken annually has surged 35 percent to 1.08 billion in the past 10 years, according to Muir's association.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Blackden in London at rblackden@bloomberg.net .

Posted on 10:06 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 7 2006

NORTHERN RAIL staff have told bosses that they must act to stop the growing problem of violence on trains and stations.

More station and on-train staff, more visible police presence, a ban on alcohol on some services and a zero-tolerance approach to infringement of railway bylaws are at the heart of a programme demanded by Northern workers angered by the failure to deal with the problem.

A petition, already signed by the vast majority of Northern Rail conductors and station staff, also calls for managers to be on hand late at night and at weekends to provide support and co-ordinate resources, and for stations to remain open until the departure of the last train.

The RMT campaign is supported by MPs, who today tabled a commons motion calling on Northern Rail and the British Transport Police to respond positively (text and names below).

"The statistics tell the sorry story of more and more violence against railway staff, partricularly late at night and at weekends, and our members are telling Northern Trains that they have reached the end of the line," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"We will work with anyone who can help stop the violence - but Northern Rail really do not have the option of failing to respond positively to this campaign."

"There have already been 109 physical assaults and 230 cases of threats and verbal abuse on Northern Rail staff this year, but many more go unreported, and the worst period of the year is yet to come," RMT organiser Stan Herschel said.

"We also know that a quarter of accidents to Northern passengers aren't accidents at all, but assaults, and we hope that the vast majority of law-abiding passengers will support us

"We know which trains we're likely to encounter trouble on, because it's the same trains every week.

"Our members find it hard enough to find a transport police officer when they need one, but managers are simply not around precisely when their staff need them most," Stan Herschel said.

ends

Note for Editors: Early Day Motion 2910, tabled by Jim Cousins (Newcastle Upon Tyne Central) and supported to date by Eric Martlew, Graham Stringer, Linda Riordan, John Grogan, Robert N Wareing, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn

Anti-social behaviour on Northern Rail services
That this House notes with concern that anti-social behaviour is an increasing threat to rail staff and passengers; notes that in the last five years staff assaults have risen on the mainline railway by 106 per cent.; therefore supports the campaign by RMT Northern Rail trade union representatives to reduce anti-social behaviour on Northern Rail services and its key objectives of targeted increases in police and staff resources, the banning of alcohol on some services and the full enforcement of railway by-laws; and therefore urges Northern Rail and the British Transport Police to respond positively to the campaign's objectives.

Posted on 03:29 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 6 2006

Strike to continue while RMT members are consulted

MORE THAN 900 North Sea divers and support staff who have been on indefinite strike since November 1 are to consider a new offer made by the employers today after eight hours of talks held under the auspices of Acas.

The strike will continue while members are consulted in a referendum to be concluded later this week.

"After six days of solid indefinite strike action and after eight hours of talks today under the auspices of Acas, the employers have today made a new offer," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said tonight.

"The new offer is of 25 (twenty-five) per cent on all rates from November 1, with a further five per cent from April 1 next year.

"The offer is also of a further five per cent or RPI plus 1.5 per cent, whichever is greater, from November 1, 2007and again from November 1, 2008.

"The employers have also agreed to pay divers and support staff for all eight bank holidays.

"Importantly the employers have also agreed to formulate proper bargaining procedures with each of the seven companies involved, although they will still come together when pay is discussed for all seven companies.

"The offer has been made without strings, and will be put to members in a referendum that will close later this week," Bob Crow said

Posted on 12:40 AM | Permalink

International Herald Tribune: November 6, 2006
By Choe Sang-Hun

SEOUL: South Korea signed a preliminary $10 billion contract Monday to build a railroad in Nigeria in return for a stake in the African country's oil fields, officials said.

The deal is the latest in a trend among energy-hungry Asian investors' signing deals to build roads, power plants and other industrial infrastructure in Africa to win better access to energy sources.

The minister of commerce, industry and energy of South Korea, Chung Sye Kyun, and Oil Minister Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria signed a memorandum of understanding shortly after Presidents Roh Moo Hyun of South Korea and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria met here.

Under the deal, South Korea would provide long-term, low-interest loans to help Nigeria cover part of the estimated $10 billion necessary to rebuild the railroad, the South Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said. The tracks would cover 1,500 kilometers, or 930 miles, and connect Port Harcourt, on Nigeria's west coast, to Maiduguri, in the east, the ministry added.

In return, South Korea, which imports all of its oil, was promised an advantage in buying an unspecified stake in Nigerian oil fields. Posco Engineering & Construction and Korea National Oil formed a consortium to carry out the South Korean side of the deal. Construction may begin as early as in the first half of 2007 after the two countries sort out details, including the size of the oil blocks for South Korea and the terms for commercial loans for Nigeria.

The South Korean government said of the deal, "This is a win-win project where South Korea's technology and Nigeria's resources are swapped."

A spokesman said: "President Roh asked the Nigerian government to help South Korean firms participating in Nigeria's petroleum and gas field development. President Obasanjo asked our government to urge South Korean companies to participate in Nigerian projects to build hydroelectric dams, railroads and other infrastructure"

Roh visited Nigeria in March seeking a share in Nigeria's oil and natural gas development. Obasanjo plans to attend the opening of the first Korea-Africa Forum in Seoul on Tuesday. Among other African leaders expected to attend are Denis Sassou-Nguesso, president of the Congo Republic; Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, president of Tanzania; John Agyekum Kufuor, president of Ghana; and Thomas Boni Yayi, president of Benin.

The forum takes place as South Korea seeks closer cooperation with African countries for their natural resources and potential markets for South Korean goods. South Korea started exploring oil reserves in Benin in 2004. In March, Korea National Oil won the exploration rights for two offshore blocks in Nigeria.

Nigeria sold 16 oil licenses in May in return for promises by mostly Asian investors, largely Chinese and Indian companies, of $20 billion of investment in refining, power and other projects. Nigeria is to hold bidding for 60 blocks that will be the last by Obasanjo's government before he steps down next year.

Posted on 12:06 AM | Permalink

UN News Centre: 6 November 2006

A railway version of the famed Silk Road is set to move a step closer to reality at a regional United Nations transport conference that opened in the Republic of Korea (ROK) today, with an agreement for a trans-continental network linking national systems from Armenia to Viet Nam.

“We are here because we dare to dream – of revitalizing the spirit of enterprise that symbolizes the ancient Silk Road,” UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Executive Secretary Kim Hak-Su told the meeting in ROK’s southern port city of Busan. “Our work this week will constitute policy decisions for building interlinked highways and railways for 21st century Asia.”

He noted that decisions made during the Conference could transform remote parts of the region into interconnected hubs of economic vitality and social progress. “We need to deal with a range of infrastructure and institutional barriers that blunt the competitive edge of exports and increase the costs of imports,” he said. “Much work lies ahead of us, to develop efficient and truly cost-effective transport linkages.”

Some 300 high-ranking officials are meeting from 6-8 November ahead of the ministerial meeting scheduled for 10-11 November. More than 50 ministerial-level representatives from 43 of UNESCAP’s 61 members are expected to attend.

One of the highlights of the conference is the signing of the Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network (TAR) on 10 November. Once signed, the treaty will be deposited with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York.

The TAR accord comes on the heels of the Asian Highway Network that came into force last year, also under UNESCAP auspices. UNESCAP experts believe that port efficiency can be enhanced through the integration of rail and shipping to avoid port congestion, a key factor in Asia, which is home to 13 of the world’s top 20 container ports.

TAR is also crucial for landlocked countries whose access to world markets is heavily dependent on efficient links to the region’s main international ports. Twelve of the world’s 30 landlocked countries are in Asia, and 10 are TAR members.

TAR members are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

A Ministerial Declaration on Transport will include a framework for the efficient and effective implementation of a regional action programme. It is designed to set the direction of transport development in the UNESCAP region over the next five years.

A second Ministerial Declaration will focus on improving road safety. UNESCAP estimates that by 2020 approximately 610,000 road deaths, representing two-thirds of the world’s total, will be in the UNESCAP region.

Posted on 08:46 AM | Permalink

RMT: 5 November 2006

Over 100 trade unionists and their supporters gathered at a Conference called by Bristol Trades Union Council on Saturday 4 November to hear Labour Party leadership contender, John McDonnell MP, Chair of the Defend Public Services campaign call for an end to the Public Finance Initiative and condemn privatisation policies.

Mr McDonnell castigated New Labour's obsession with handing over vast sums of taxpayers' money to private sector 'fat cats' to run our schools, hospitals, railways and social and public services across both local and central government .

Speaking alongside Mr McDonnell, GMB union General Secretary, Paul Kenny asked the packed meeting: “When we said that privatising hospital cleaners would lead to low wages, high staff turnover, dirtier hospitals and provide a breeding ground for new super bugs, such as MRSA, were we wrong?” Delegates responded with a resounding “No”.

Paul Kenny, GMB union General Secretary

National Union of Teachers Deputy General Secretary, Christine Blower reminded the Conference of the words of US anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass, who in 1841 told a meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society: “Nothing worth having is won without a fight.” She is proud that NUT supports the Trade Union Freedom Bill sponsored by John McDonnell MP.

Christine Blower, Deputy General Secretary, National Union of Teachers

T&GWU southwest Regional Secretary, Andy Frampton called for a fight back by trade unionists to win both full trade union rights and to defend public services from privatisation.

UNISON national officer, Christine Durant warned that because of the internal market in the NHS beds were already being closed in some hospitals by health trusts anxious to balance the books before the end of the financial year on March 31 2007.

The Conference also heard speakers from PCS, FBU and RMT unions and voted by acclaim to send a message of solidarity to RMT North Sea Diver members meeting that day in Aberdeen for a successful outcome to their indefinite, all-out strike for fair pay against the oil companies.

John Drake, Fire Brigades Union Regional Secretary

Bristol TUC organised the Conference in order to discuss the privatisation threat both from New Labour and the Liberal Democrat-run Bristol City Council administration that is attacking care home staff and public transport provision by contracting out public services to private contractors. The Conference, which raised public awareness of the need to defend public service provision, was the initiative of Bill Nicholas, a Bristol TUC stalwart for over 70 years who is 92 years of age.

Alex Gordon

Secretary,
RMT South Wales & West of England Regional Council

Posted on 05:25 PM | Permalink

RMT: November 5 2006

THE GOVERNMENT should impose an immediate moratorium on rail franchising, Britain’s biggest rail union says today as a report by MPs condemns the failure of a fundamentally flawed system that delivers only fragmentation.

Tendering for the East and West Midlandsand new Cross-Country franchises should be shelved and failing franchise GNER brought back in-house while ministers chart how to bring all the franchises back under proper public control, RMT said today.

"Gwyneth Dunwoody has hit the nail on the head by saying that franchising delivers only fragmentation and short-term thinking, and that no amount of tinkering can resolve the fundamental flaws in the system," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.

"The Transport Committee's report highlights the utter nonsense of a set-up in which private operators keep siphoning profits out yet shoulder almost no financial risk.

"The current system has handed guaranteed, risk-free profits to private operators who are demonstrably less efficient than British Rail and incapable of delivering the growing railway that Britainneeds and our environment craves.

"Rail investment is now more than three times more expensive than it was in BR days, while train services are less reliable, fares are the most expensive in Europe and stations all too often left decaying, unstaffed and in darkness.

"Last week ministers rightly responded to the stark warnings in the Stern report by talking about setting statutory targets to carbon emissions.

"If the railways are to play their role in helping us to meet them we must have a growing, joined-up railway with affordable fares and attractive services that encourage people out of their cars and onto trains.

"The huge sums of taxpapers' and fare-payers' money already going into the railways should be spent on improving them, and bringing rail operations back in-house would be a massive step towards ensuring that that happens.

"The report should also serve as a warning to the mayor of Londonof the folly of going ahead with the privatisation of the East London Line," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 09:11 AM | Permalink

ePolitix.com: 5 Nov 2006

MPs have attacked the rail franchising system as a "costly muddle".

The Commons transport select committee said in a report released on Sunday that the system under which different private firms run various train lines is overly complex and fragmented and "past its sell-by date".

The report predicted that problems with the network would lead to passengers paying higher prices.

It pointed out that some train companies receive subsidies to run services while others pay the government a premium.

And it warned against the government allowing them to "over-bid" for franchises and then using taxpayers' money to bail them out through renegotiated contracts when they ran into trouble.

"Were the government to give in to such pressures, the floodgates could be open to many future claims, and taxpayers would be left to foot the bill," the report said.

Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said the current system was "unsustainable".

"At the end of the day, passengers will pay the price when operators cut service levels or hike fares to pay the premiums, and taxpayers will foot the bill when operators default or walk away from their contracts," she said.

See also:

Franchising of rail services is a 'costly muddle' MPs warn

The Guardian: November 6, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

The railway franchise system is a costly "muddle" that punishes passengers and taxpayers without delivering any benefits to the rail industry, a group of MPs has warned.
A report by the Commons transport select committee raised doubts over the operation of the British rail network. Under the franchise system, the Department for Transport allows train-operating companies to run services in exchange for premium payments, usually over a 10-year contract.

The system has come under scrutiny following financial troubles at one of the best-known operators, GNER, which is struggling to meet the £1.3bn premium attached to its 10-year deal. Two other operators, FirstGroup and StageCoach, which have signed billion-pound contracts, are ripping out seats from carriages to meet increased demand on a network that is running out of capacity in some areas, particularly the south-east.

Gwyneth Dunwoody, chairwoman of the committee, said the system had "passed its sell-by date" and tended to encourage short-term thinking at the expense of coordinated planning between the government and the rail industry.

"This muddle is unsustainable," she said. "For the best part of a decade, the government has tinkered timidly round the edges to try to resolve the many problems. But no amount of tinkering can resolve the fundamental flaws."

She added that the government underwrote most of the risk, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill if a company walked away from the franchise. The MP said passengers would also be affected when they paid the increased fares levied by operators to cover the rising premiums.

The MPs recommended some short-term measures including: not renegotiating franchises or all operators would demand reduced payments; valuing bids more on innovation and socio-economic benefits, not premium payouts, and encouraging new entrants into the market.

There is concern within the rail industry that franchise terms are too specified, demanding a set number of buffet cars and even laying down strict guidelines on timetables. Some executives would like to see the franchises set targets for accommodating the projected 30% increase in passenger numbers in the next decade.

George Muir, of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said franchising had improved train services and dismissed the claim that the franchising policy was a muddle as "just not true".

Posted on 08:18 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 5 November 2006

The UK's rail franchising system is a complex, fragmented and "costly muddle", for which passengers will end up paying the price, MPs have warned.

The GNER franchise is struggling to make a profit

The Commons transport select committee said the system was fundamentally flawed and "past its sell-by date".

It warned the government against allowing private firms to "over-bid" for franchises and later using taxpayers' money to bail them out.

Train operators said franchising had brought improvements to rail services.

Under the system, private companies bid to run rail services on routes, with some receiving subsidies to do so but others paying the government a premium.

Bankruptcy protection

The system has come under the spotlight after Bermuda-based Sea Containers, the parent company of East Coast Main Line operator GNER, applied for protection against bankruptcy.

GNER, which runs services between London, north-east England and Scotland, is due to pay the government £1.3bn in premiums over 10 years under the original terms of its franchise.

"At the end of the day, passengers will pay the price when operators cut service levels or hike fares to pay the premiums" - Gwyneth Dunwoody

But now the operator is talking to the government about renegotiating its contract - something the select committee believes should not happen with operators who have "over-bid" to win their contracts.

"Were the government to give in to such pressures, the floodgates could be open to many future claims, and taxpayers would be left to foot the bill," the committee said in a report.

It added the drive to extract premiums could result in above-inflation fare increases and a reduction in customer service, investment and innovation.

The committee urged the government to spend money received from operators directly on service improvements and to consult passengers more closely.

It said that often the franchise requirements set by the government were too rigid and hindered improvements.

The MPs said passengers must be the first priority.

The report concluded the UK has the right number and size of train companies, but said there should be better systems for ensuring companies share both the money raised in fares - and the risk of something going wrong.

Passenger satisfaction

Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody said the current system was "unsustainable".

"Our railway is the fastest growing in Europe and passenger satisfaction, at 80%, is higher than it has probably ever been" - George Muir

She said: "At the end of the day, passengers will pay the price when operators cut service levels or hike fares to pay the premiums, and taxpayers will foot the bill when operators default or walk away from their contracts."

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, said the report was evidence that privatisation was not working.

"The current system has handed guaranteed, risk-free profits to private operators who are demonstrably less efficient than British Rail," he said.

"The huge sums of taxpayers' and fare-payers' money already going into the railways should be spent on improving them, and bringing rail operations back in-house would be a massive step towards ensuring that that happens."

But George Muir, director general of the Association of Train Operating Companies, said franchising was responsible for improvements to rail services.

"There are still a lot of improvements that can be made to passenger services," he said.

"But our railway is the fastest growing in Europe and passenger satisfaction, at 80%, is higher than it has probably ever been."

See also:

UK transport select committee warns govt not to renegotiate rail franchises

AFX: 5th November 2006

LONDON - The government should not cave in to demands from train operating companies to renegotiate franchises, the Transport select committee warned.

In a damning report on the state of the franchise system, the all-party group said giving in to firms that had essentially 'over-bid' for their contracts would only open the flood gates to further claims.

Taxpayers would ultimately end up footing the bill if this happened.

The committee is referring to the East Coast Main Line franchise run by GNER, a unit of US-listed Sea Containers Ltd.

Only a year ago GNER agreed to pay 1.3 bln stg for its franchise until 2015, but it has failed to meet revenue projections. It is now trying to get the contract terms altered, but the government is not budging.

'The government must hold firm on its commitment not to re-negotiate franchising contracts with operators who have over-bid to win their contracts,' the committee said.

It also called on the government to 're-balance the way it evaluates bids so that more emphasis is placed on innovation, environmental improvements and wider socio-economic factors, and less weight is given to increasing premiums and reducing subsidies'.

'Innovation should be rewarded through an option to invest parts of the franchise premium directly into the services or infrastructure of the franchise. The government also needs to create incentives for operators to control their costs more effectively.'

Overall, the committee said the franchising system is 'a complex, fragmented and costly muddle which is unlikely to provide the innovation and investment needed for the passenger railways of the future'.

It said 'the Government has embraced the notion that private enterprise is best at delivering high-quality, innovative services such as the passenger railways, and yet it does not trust companies to deliver these services without highly detailed and specific contractual requirements which reduce the scope for innovation'.

'It supports competition, and yet appears to see open access operators as a threat to stability. It wants risk to be transferred from the public to the private sector, and yet risk cannot be transferred in anything other than name because, as everyone knows, no government could afford to let the railways go bust.'

Committee chairman Gwyneth Dunwoody accused the government of 'tinkering timidly round the edges to try to resolve the many problems'.

'In the current system, the government tries to entice bidders into promising ever greater premiums, but in return, it has to underwrite virtually all the risks to which operators are exposed,' she said.

'At the end of the day, passengers will pay the price when operators cut service levels or hike fares to pay the premiums, and taxpayers will foot the bill when operators default or walk away from their contracts.'

'It is easy to see the costs to passengers and taxpayers, but we found it difficult to identify any benefits of this system.

The MPs also want to see new entrants encouraged to the franchising market.

'The current concentration with a small number of large players dominating the market indicates that barriers of entry in the rail franchising market are too high,' they said.

See also:

Legislators attack Britain's rail concession system

Reuters: Nov 5, 2006
By Adrian Croft

LONDON - A British parliamentary committee sharply criticised the way the country organises its passenger railways on Sunday, saying the system of awarding rail concessions to private companies is a muddle.

Britain's railways were privatised in the 1990s under the previous Conservative government.

State-backed Network Rail is responsible for rail infrastructure while the government awards concessions or franchises to private companies to operate passenger services.

"More than a decade after rail privatisation and the introduction of franchising of passenger services, we remain to be convinced that the system has achieved its objectives, or that it is indeed capable of doing so," the House of Commons Transport Committee said in a report.

"Passenger rail franchising, far from being a model capable of delivering quality rail services for the next half century, appears to be a policy muddle," it said.

It made no proposals for an alternative system but urged Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government to carry out a strategic review of the long-term needs of rail passengers and "an honest appraisal of the structure best suited to fulfil these needs over the next several decades".

It made a series of short-term recommendations to improve the current franchising system in the meantime.

The government, which seeks to encourage people to use trains, is already due to publish a long-term strategy for the railways in the summer of 2007.

SAFETY FEARS

The death of 31 people when two trains collided near London's Paddington station in 1999 and the death of four people in another accident a year later caused public alarm over the state of Britain's crumbling railways.

The government has since poured billions of pounds into modernising the network. Rail travel is booming and passenger numbers are expected to grow by up to 30 percent in Britain over the next decade.

But railway operators now pay large sums to win the right to operate train services, raising concerns that operators could try to recoup the money by cutting back services, cramming more people onto trains or raising ticket prices.

In March 2005, GNER, a unit of U.S.-listed Sea Containers, agreed to pay 1.3 billion pounds to the government for the right to keep running the lucrative East Coast main line for 10 years, the most expensive rail concession in European history.

But GNER has since struggled, with passenger revenues falling 31 million pounds short of its plans in the first 14 months of the new franchise.

"The current franchising model has passed its sell-by date. The railways require a coordinated long-term strategy for development and investment to provide the capacity and service levels that future generations will demand," the Labour member of parliament who chairs the transport committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody, said in a statement.

The parliamentary committee said it was crucial for the government to resist any pressure to renegotiate franchise agreements if operators got into difficulties.

It said the absence of new entrants into the passenger rail franchising market was a clear indication of unreasonably high barriers to entry.

"We are deeply concerned that a small number of companies have come to dominate the franchising market," it said, urging the government to act to bring new companies into the market.

See also:

Rail franchise system flawed - MPs

Press Association: November 5, 2006

The rail franchise system is a "costly muddle" and passengers will end up paying the price, a report from MPs has warned.

The system in which private companies bid for and run rail routes, with some getting subsidies and others paying the Government a premium, will not improve passenger services in the long run, the report from the House of Commons Transport Committee added.

"The current franchising model has passed its sell-by date," said the committee's chairwoman Gwyneth Dunwoody.

She added that the system was "fundamentally flawed" and delivered only "fragmentation and short-term thinking".

The franchise system was put under the spotlight after East Coast Main Line operator GNER's parent company, Bermuda-based Sea Containers, applied for US Chapter 11 protection against bankruptcy.

This threw GNER's franchise into difficulty, particularly since it is due to pay the Government £1.3 billion in premiums over 10 years.

One of the recommendations made by the Transport Committee was that the Government should "hold firm on its commitment not to re-negotiate franchising contracts with operators who have over-bid to win their contracts".

The committee went on: "Were the Government to give in to such pressures, the flood gates could be open to many future claims, and tax-payers would be left to foot the bill."

The MPs also said: "We are concerned that the drive to extract premiums from some parts of the network will result in further above-inflation fare increases and a deterioration in customer service, investment and innovation."

The committee said the franchise system had had a decade to prove itself, but had failed to achieve its core objectives.

Posted on 08:17 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 3 2006

Acas talks on Monday, but strike continues, says RMT

STRIKING DIVERS crowded into Aberdeen Trades Council club to demonstrate their "unbreakable resolve" to win pay justice, maritime union RMT said today.

Talks aimed at settling the dispute are scheduled to take place through conciliation servcice Acas on Monday, but the indefinite strike which began on November 1 will continue, and there remain no diving supoprt vessels operational in the North Sea.

The union also said that an emergency committee of divers had been set up to ensure that in the event of a genuine emergency involving a threat to safety an appropriate response could be mobilised immediately.

"Our members came to Aberdeen today and demonstrated that they are utterly united and share an unbreakable resolve to win justice in their pay dispute," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said after today's mass meeting.

"The divers have made it clear thar they are 101 per cent together and that there will be no diving in the North Sea until the dispute is resolved, and we made it clear to them that they can continue to count on 101 per cent support from their union.

"There will be talks at Acas on Monday, and that is clearly a step forward, but there was no doubt from the meeting that the indefinite strike will continue.

"Solidarity messages have continued to pour in from unions around the world, offering moral and practical support, but also pledging to see to it that there would be no personnel diving in UK waters until this dispute is resolved," Bob Crow said.

See also:

Striking divers meet with union

BBC News: 3 November 2006

Divers work at depths of up to several hundred feet

North Sea divers on strike after rejecting a pay offer from employers have met with union officials.
Around 250 divers attended a mass meeting in Aberdeen.

Members of the RMT union voted against a new three-year deal offering a 20% increase immediately, plus more from April next year.

There has been concern that any strike action could bring chaos to parts of the UK oil and gas sector. The meeting was held on Friday afternoon.

The RMT said divers were carrying out probably the most dangerous job in the North Sea, working on wells and pipelines at depths of several hundred feet.

Massive profits

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said the divers were resolute in continuing the strike.

He added: "They are 100% behind the strike - they are standing shoulder to shoulder.

"The employers have been making massive profits over the last few years and our members have helped to contribute to that - it is time to put the matter right.

"The mood is one of determination. We are willing to talk, but any offer that is made will go back to our members before a decision is made."

The union said the walkout would continue for as long as it took for employers to come back with a better deal.

However, the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) said it was disappointed that the divers had rejected the latest pay offer despite their union's recommendation to accept it.

Posted on 08:08 PM | Permalink

AFX: 4 Nov 2006

PARIS - The French engineering group Alstom has asked a Paris administrative court to suspend a huge contract awarded by the national railway SNCF to Canadian rival Bombardier, the railway said today.

Alstom Transport 'filed a request with the Paris administrative tribunal concerning the deal' worth 2.7 bln eur to build commuter trains for the Paris suburban network, an SNCF spokesman said.

'The group is asking for a suspension', he added.

A massive program to renovate the suburban system is expected to cost almost 4 bln eur, with Bombardier providing the rolling stock.

An initial stage that would include 172 new trains was estimated at 1.85 bln eur, of which the Canadian group would be paid 1.35 bln eur.

An option provided for an additional 200 trains that would be delivered starting in 2016.

All of the trains awarded to Bombardier were to be built in France, according to Jean-Paul Huchon, a member of the opposition Socialist party who heads the council and transport authority for the region around Paris called Ile-de-France.

Posted on 12:06 PM | Permalink

The Guardian: November 3, 2006
Dan Milmo, transport correspondent

The government is accused of charging train operators too much - funny how the ones doing the accusing are the same greedy fat cats who have been raking in public subsidy for the last 10 years.

Ten years after privatisation, rail travel is booming but the network franchise system put in place by the last Tory government is being criticised by some train operators as unsustainable.

Train operators pay the government a set fee for the right to run services on the rail network. The franchises, which usually run for 10 years, are coming up for renewal and companies are being forced to increase their payments to unprecedented levels.

This weekend a report by MPs will scrutinise the system. The government has poured billions into restoring the railways but it is now accused of taking too much money out of it.

The structure has put intolerable pressure on arguably the most popular train service in Britain: the London to Edinburgh operation run by GNER.

Anthony Smith, head of the rail watchdog Passenger Focus, says: "GNER was a company making money and investing in the railway. Now it is on the rocks and the UK's premier railway is hanging by a thread. The problem has to be laid at the door of the government. It accepted this whopping bid and now we are seeing some of the consequences."

GNER has hit the buffers one year into a pledge to pay the government £1.3bn for the right to run trains on the east coast main line until 2015. It is underperforming revenue forecasts that underpin those lofty terms, having posted turnover growth of only 3.3% last year when it needed to reach 10%. Having admitted that the contract is all but impossible to fulfil, it is attempting to alter the franchise terms despite the Department for Transport's insistence that it will not renegotiate.

Unease

Industry unease has grown following two more huge bids: Stagecoach recently renewed the South Western service with a £1.2bn bid and FirstGroup, the UK's largest train operator, won the Great Western route with a £1bn offer. Three more lucrative franchises are up for grabs over the next year: the Penzance to Aberdeen Cross-Country route; east Midlands, and west Midlands.

The alarm over franchise bids comes at a time when customer satisfaction with railways is at a record high. However, the high approval rating masks growing concern over congestion on commuter routes amid projected passenger growth of 30% across Britain in the next decade.

Industry experts openly question whether the franchise system is flexible enough to accommodate that demand. According to Passenger Focus, only 41% of train users believe they get value for money from fares, with commuters on crowded routes in London and the south-east the least satisfied.

Mr Smith says the franchise system has become "really worrying" because the payments boom is coinciding with stripped-down services such as the sidelining of buffet trains on the Great Western franchise and the removal of seats on the South West Trains routes.

"In the long term, it will produce a very different type of railway - a railway that is very crowded for a large part of the day," he says. "You wonder if that will tempt people out of their cars."

Stephen Joseph, director of the environmental body Transport 2000, adds: "We want a growing railway and not a franchise system that prices off demand." A road-pricing bill, allowing local authorities to install pay-as-you-drive schemes, is expected to appear in the Queen's speech on November 15. Experts warn that a perception of steep fares will dissuade people from dumping their car for the train and high franchise payments could lift ticket prices further.

An efficient and growing railway network is central to the government's goal of reducing road congestion and a high-speed north-south rail link is one of the most ambitious proposals to raise rail capacity. But rail infrastructure is costly to maintain and build. Excluding the north-south link, the company that runs Britain's railways, Network Rail, is seeking £21bn just to keep the network ticking over from 2009 to 2014. It wants a further £8bn to increase capacity, with nearly half earmarked for overhauling the Bedford-to-Brighton Thameslink.

With that level of investment being called for, it seems no surprise that the government was dazzled by the riches promised by GNER. Christian Wolmar, a veteran railways expert, says the Treasury windfall from train operators masks the huge indirect subsidy they receive from Network Rail, via the government. Network Rail gets about £2.5bn a year in government grants, allowing it to levy much lower track access charges on the train operators - equivalent to an extra £100m a year for GNER. He believes the DfT is under pressure from the Treasury to redress the fiscal imbalance created by the enormous investment in Network Rail.

The four largest franchises pay about £500m a year so the operators' profits are flattered by state benevolence, says Mr Wolmar, adding that train operators are not accountable for the risk they take on board anyway. "Why are we quasi-transferring some risk to the private sector to run these trains when, at the point where it all goes wrong in the case of GNER, they are highly likely to be bailed out or be asked to hand the keys back? And why are we making these companies bet on how well the railway will do over the next 10 years, when that is largely based on the health of the economy and not their own efforts?"

Windfall

Network Rail says the government must use the franchise windfall to improve the railways and increase capacity to meet growing demand. Otherwise, the likes of StageCoach and FirstGroup will fail to cope with the extra passengers they need to pay for the franchise, argue the executives who run the rail network.

Iain Coucher, deputy chief executive of Network Rail, says projects such as the £3.5bn Thameslink overhaul need the government green light if the UK is to cope with projected demand. "For the train-operating companies to meet these premium payments, it is dependent on getting more people into trains," he says. "Therefore, the Thameslink programme is one of the things we have to do if the industry is to meet those premium payments."

Many of those demanding extra cash are also urging the government and DfT to devolve and step away from the franchising process. Ken Livingstone, ever eager to expand his transport powers as London mayor, has won control of the former Silverlink rail franchise in north London and is considering tendering the service as a quality incentive contract, similar to the arrangement for bus operators in the capital. Under this contract, operators would be paid a fixed rate, plus a bonus for hitting targets such as punctuality and cleanliness. Revenues go to the local authority and the profits are lower but at least there is no risk of being swamped by lofty franchise payments.

The devolution argument has many fans, including the mayor's transport adviser, Bob Kiley. The government should move to a decentralised model that is now well established in Europe, says Transport 2000's Mr Joseph: "Everywhere else in Europe there has been real reform. There has been a decentralisation so local train services are franchised by local train authorities."

Franchises make cash for operators and the government but there is concern that tough specifications on issues such as train lengths and timetables do not leave enough latitude to accommodate the looming 30% leap in demand.

Bob Mackenzie, GNER executive chairman, says financial demands are now the main factor in bidding. "Price seems to be the primary focus," he says. "We accept that tenderers have to take risks in a commercial bid of this scale but there could be more risk-sharing. [Franchises] will work if approached in the spirit of real partnership, with shared successes and shared problems."

Backstory

The much-criticised privatisation of the railways under John Major's Tory government was complicated and rushed. The privatisation of BT and British Gas created monopolies, so in an effort to create competition, railways and trains were separated. Railtrack, which owned the track and signals and is now Network Rail, was carved out of British Rail in 1994. Keen to complete the sell-off before a general election, the Tories raised £1.9bn by floating Railtrack in 1996 and awarded the last of the train operator franchises to private firms a month before the May 1997 election that ushered in Tony Blair. Two rail crashes - at Paddington in 1999 and Hatfield in 2000 - led to a series of damning reports on railway safety by Lord Cullen, which warned that privatisation had left the industry too fragmented.

Posted on 09:53 AM | Permalink

RMT Circular No: IR242/06: November 2 2006

PTR&R ARRANGEMENTS - NETWORK RAIL (BR5/16/4)

Dear Colleague
A meeting of the Network Rail National Operations Council has recently taken place at the request of this union to discuss the company unilaterally introducing changes to the application of the Redundancy and Resettlement arrangements.

Management has applied their new policy to both the recent Operations Review and the reorganisation of Trust Delay Attribution staff and it now looks like we are about to face similar problems with regard to our Competency Assessor members as a result of Line Managers assuming the responsibility for assessment decisions.

The background is that at national level consultation the company gave an assurance that theywould comply with the PTR&R arrangements in terms of these reorganisations. However, with regard to displaced staff working out of grade, the wording of their consultation memorandum was as follows:

"…it is acknowledged that employees may be offered a job at a lower grade as an alternative to redundancy.

Ordinarily, we would look to place individuals no more than one grade lower than their substantive grade"

Displaced members have subsequently found themselves in the position of facing redundancy because even where there are no other positions available, management are refusing to allow them to apply for positions for which they are qualified but which are more than one grade below their current grade unless the individual is prepared to accept the rate of pay for the post.

The company has justified their policy by quoting Schedule "A" (Notes for Guidance) of the PTR&R arrangements, part of which states that:-

"….factors which may be taken into account in determining what constitutes an offer of suitable alternative work in relation to the employee concerned are the skills of the employee, the nature of his previous work, the earnings in his new job compared with his previous earnings ………"

The union has made it clear to management that "Schedule A" was drawn up to protect the employee in terms of what is suitable alternative work, not to be used by management in this way. A further meeting with the company will take place later this month and your representatives will continue to pursue the issue, in addition to problems concerning relocation payments.

I also have to report that Network Rail has stated that they wish to establish a JWP to look at the PTR&R arrangements as a consequence of the recent age discrimination legislation I have responded that whilst the union is willing to consider entering into such a working party there is a need to consider terms of reference. The company has also not given any indication as to the overall size of the JWP.

I have also pointed out that until now there has only been discussion on the current position of the PTR&R at the National Operations Council. This union therefore believes that as a first step, before a JWP is convened, there should be a joint Maintenance & Operations Principles meeting. I am currently awaiting a response from management.

I shall, of course, keep you advised of all further developments.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 02:21 AM | Permalink

Der Spiegel: November 1, 2006

DELAYS EXPECTED
Germany has been trying to privatize its trains for years. Now, with the IPO in sight, the country's governing coalition cannot agree on how to go forward. The whole project may be shelved.

The plan to privatize the German train system may fall through.

German trains may have a reputation for being among some of the best and most efficient in Europe, but Deutsche Bahn is proving to be less than punctual as a company. Plans for selling off the state-owned railway, which is one of Germany's last major state-owned assets, are proceeding at the speed of a ramshackle local train whose arrival time is looking increasingly uncertain.

Indeed, within the German government, doubts seem to be growing that privatization will ever take place at all.

Plans for an initial public offering (IPO) are supposed to be in the final stages, in preparation for a 2008 offering. But squabbling within Germany's unwieldy governing coalition -- which pairs the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) with the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- has thrown the project in doubt.

Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee expressed doubts Tuesday about the planned privatization. All the facts are on the table, the SPD politician told the Berlin chamber of commerce, and the fundamental decision on the privatization will be made within the next few days. "In an extreme case this could mean that there is no partial privatization," he said, adding that it is possible the company might continue in its current form. If this happens, it will have to look elsewhere to raise much-needed capital, he said, hinting at the possibility of the state injecting more cash.

Other voices within the SPD are even more skeptical about the chances of reaching an agreement with the conservatives, also known as the Union. The Berlin daily Tagesspiegel cited a source close to the SPD as saying "The thing is probably going to be called off. We don't see the Union moving on this."

SPD transport policy spokesman Uwe Beckmeyer also demanded that the conservatives show more flexibility. "The Christian Democrats can't always be putting on the brakes," he told the Tagesspiegel.

The CDU's transport policy spokesman Dirk Fischer countered that the Christian Democrats want to continue negotiating with the SPD. He told the Berliner Zeitung that they would try hard to reach a result at the next coalition meeting about the privatization on Nov. 8, and that they hope to finally have a text for a Bundestag resolution ready by the end of the meeting. "Nobody wants to frivolously put the negotiations in danger," he told the paper. "Quality is more important than speed. There is no 'best before' date."

However Fischer also told the Tagesspiegel that he doesn't see "a way for a compromise yet." And an IPO is not the only way to raise capital, he pointed out. "If the floatation doesn't succeed, then Deutsche Bahn can still sell off 50 percent of its logistics division Schenker," he told the paper. Deutsche Bahn would retain control of the company, but it would be €3 billion better off. "Deutsche Bahn will not get any capital from the federal budget in any case," the CDU politician commented.

The sticking point is whether the privatized company should own the rail network, including tracks and stations. A total separation of the network from other assets, as has been proposed by some experts and politicians with the aim of increasing competition, has already been rejected. Tiefensee has come up with a new model whereby the government would retain the legal ownership of the network but Deutsche Bahn would be allowed to operate it and keep it on its books. Deutsche Bahn predicts thousands of job cuts under this model, however.

Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn is frustrated by the delays in the privatization plans and feels that Deutsche Bahn's current healthy figures suggest that the time is ripe for an IPO, and that delays will hurt the company. The company's credit rating has already been downgraded, raising the danger of higher interest payments.

"I don't understand these constant postponements anymore," he recently complained. "We need a decision now. Disquiet within the company is growing."

The uncertainty is certainly felt among the staff. If the government retains control of the track network, existing job guarantees will have to be re-negotiated. Rail workers went on strike in September after talks with management over revised job guarantees broke down.

The possible new delays should come as no surprise, as the privatization process has been dragging on for years. But now there is also talk within the government of a moratorium for the privatization, in which case an IPO would no longer be possible before the next general elections. Expect further delays.

See also:

Report: Rail Privatization Scheme Appears in Jeopardy

Deutsche Welle: 01.11.2006

A Deutsche Bahn IPO seems more likely to get a red flag than a green light

A long-debated deal to partially privatize Germany's railway system appears near collapse, with government coalition factions unable to agree on key points.

A deal to privatize the Deutsche Bahn is likely fall apart amid debate over ownership of train tracks and stations, according to the Wednesday edition of German daily newspaper Tagesspiegel.

The paper cited a source close to the Social Democrats (SPD) as saying "the deal will go bust," since both factions of the ruling government coalition -- the SPD and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) -- are unable to agree on a privatization model.

Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn is anxious to sell

The head of Deutsche Bahn, Hartmut Mehdorn, has long been pushing for a partial privatization as a way to get a much-needed cash infusion. He says the time is ripe for a deal, but warns the company is losing its momentum as the issue continues to remain unresolved.

Who'll get the tracks?

Nonetheless, the discord between the two government factions appears to be too great to overcome. At question is whether Deutsche Bahn will be privatized with or without its network of tracks and train stations. The CDU would like to transfer the tracks to the state, but the SPD would like Deutsche Bahn to keep them.

"We don't see the (Christian Union) making any move toward us," an SPD source told Tagesspiegel. The CDU was failing to take advantage the opportunity to make Deutsche Bahn more competitive, the source said.

The SPD and CDU have said they want to make a new attempt to reach an accord in the coming weeks.

Alternate sell-off plan

Uwe Beckmeyer, the SPD spokesman on transportation issues, urged the CDU to change its approach. "The Union cannot always just step on the brakes," he told Tagesspiegel.

Train tracks, and their ownership, are at the heart of the dispute

He added that the best way for Deutsche Bahn to get its needed capital injection is via IPO.

Meanwhile, CDU spokesman Dirk Fischer told Tagesspiegel he did not yet see a "bridge for a compromise" on privatization. Instead, he suggested alternative way for the company to get cash -- by selling off part of a lucrative subsidiary.

Should privatization plans fall through, Fischer said, Deutsche Bahn should put half of its logistics and freight unit Schenker up for sale.

"If the IPO fails, (Deutsche Bahn's) Hartmut Mehdorn can take 50 percent of the freight unit, Schenker, public," he suggested. This would allow the rail company to retain corporate control and also give it a 3 billion euro ($3.8 billion) cash infusion.

No compromise yet

"In any case, the railway will not get any boost for its own shareholders' equity out of the federal budget," Fischer added.

Last week, German Transportation Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee had already hinted at the difficulty both parties were having reaching a compromise.

The date for setting the groundwork for privatization had already been pushed back many times, most recently to late October. Now, however, participants are talking about having an agreement by Nov. 8.

Posted on 04:10 PM | Permalink

RMT Circular No IR/0240/06: October 31 2006

Dear colleague,
OPERATION OF DOORS BY DRIVERS - SOUTH WEST TRAINS

Concern has quite rightly been raised by a number of members and branches, which included a resolution from our Basingstoke No1 Branch, with regards to a recent announcement by South West Trains management that the arrangements for opening and closing doors are to change. The company has stated that drivers will now be responsible for opening train doors at stations and guards will now only close them.

There can be little or no doubt that such an arrangement will be a breach of current agreements your union had made with the company and will, if implemented, further diminish the operational role of the guard and puts our members' jobs at risk.

The views of your union have already been made crystal clear to the company both in writing and at a meeting held last week. This matter has also been placed in front of the General Grades Committee which has taken the following decision:

"That we note the resolution from Basingstoke No1 Branch and the report from our Lead Officer. We instruct the General Secretary to seek a further report from our Lead Officer with regard to the outcome of the meeting on 25th October with the company. This matter to be placed back in front of the GGC on receipt of the said report. All branches to be advised of this decision."

I will of course keep members advised of any further developments when I am in a position to do so.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

Posted on 12:55 PM | Permalink

Reuters: Nov 2, 2006
By David Mageria

NAIROBI - Kenya and Uganda on Wednesday handed over their struggling railway operations to a private consortium hoping to boost efficiency and cut the cost of doing business in the east Africa region, officials said.

The two countries' 110-year-old dilapidated railways will be jointly managed by the Rift Valley Railways, a consortium led by South Africa's Sheltam Trade Close.

"Today we stand on the threshold of a historic change as we witness fundamental restructuring of the railways," Kenya's Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere said at a handing-over ceremony.

"We witness the transfer of the management and operations of the railways from government enterprises to the private sector for the first time in over a century," Mwakwere said.

The railway network in Kenya and Uganda has suffered due to lack of investment and is often cited as a major impediment to doing business in the region.

The landlocked countries of Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Congo have depended on the railways to move goods to and from the port of Mombasa, but have in recent years been forced to shift to expensive and unreliable road transport.

Experts said a better-managed network would help to significantly lower the cost of doing business and increase the competitiveness of products from the region.

The Rift Valley Railways last year won a 25-year concession to run both countries' railways after it agreed to share 11.1 percent of its profits, but the deal has been fraught with controversy and delay due to litigation from pensioners who used to work for the Kenya and Ugandan state railways.

The consortium is required to pay a $3 million entry fee and invest a minimum $6 million annually and increase traffic by 75 percent in the first five years.

Rift Valley Railways' Managing Director Roy Puffet said the company's priority will be to computerise the operations of the railways before moving to upgrade the infrastructure.

The handing over ceremony was delayed on Wednesday for more than 10 hours as the government, lenders and consortium partners engaged in last minute negotiations over financing.

Officials said one of Rift Valley Railways' consortium partners had planned to quit, unhappy with the interest rates to be charged on a $64 million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Germany's KfW.

"It is the IFC where they thought to be more expensive and they tried to see whether terms could be better. But the IFC felt this is a commercial business and the interest they are giving are reasonable," Joseph Kinyua, permanent secretary at Kenya's finance minister, told Reuters.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of the railway that crosses the two countries started in Mombasa in 1896. The railway was split in two in 1978 when the three east African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania parted ways over political and economic differences.

The three countries have revived the East African Community (EAC) and are currently trying to form a political federation.

Officials said the joint concessioning of the railway was a positive step toward deepening regional integration.

"The joint concessioning is a good example of how we should move the dream of east Africa so that we can one day be one country," said Rukia Chekamando, Uganda's state minister for privatisation.

See also:

Uganda: RVR to Take Over Kenya-Uganda Railways

New Vision: October 30, 2006
Mikaili Sseppuya, Kampala

The Rift Valley Railways (RVR) consortium will take over the Uganda-Kenya railways on November 1 after getting funds needed to start operations.

Finance minister Dr. Ezra Suruma said this at the signing of the Direct Agreements between RVR, the governments of Uganda and Kenya and its financiers the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Germany's KfW at Serena Kampala Hotel yesterday.

Under the agreements, RVR will immediately access $88m to start operations. RVR is to provide $24m equity, while the IFC and KfW will each lend $32m or $64m.

"Signing of the Direct Agreements today is one of the assurances that required finances for the concession are secured and the concessionaire is ready to take over the two railways," Suruma said.

"The Government is comforted by the fact that IFC and KfW are not ordinary financiers, but partners in development. With this commitment, the concessionaire will live up to its commitment to improve the railways," he said.

Suruma and Chirau Ali Mwakere, Kenya's minister for transport, signed for the Uganda and Kenya governments respectively.

Jean Phillip Prosper and Klaus Gihr signed for IFC and KfW respectively. Roy Puffet signed for RVR.

Mwakwere said although traditionally, government provided infrastructure services, some of them like railways had not been competitive, were disappointing and needed public funds for investment.

"Restructuring entails a clean break from past practices. A few concessions have been abandoned due to operators' bankruptcies but I am confident this railway concession will be a success," he said.

The consortium led by Sheltam Trade will operate the railways of both countries which cover 3,159km for the next 25 years.

It will pay $3m and $2m to the Kenyan and Ugandan governments respectively as well as concession fees equivalent to 11.1% of its gross revenues per year in each country.

It will pay $1m per year to Kenya for passenger operations.

RVR will invest $322m in improving infrastructure and rolling stock and $80m will be invested in the first five years.

Its winning proposal includes a turnaround and development programme expected to lead to significant growth and increase in freight traffic volume in the first five years.

See also:

Uganda, Kenya hand over rail operations

Kenya Times: 02 Nov' 2006
By MARK OLOO

Kenya and Uganda yesterday handed over operations of their respective railways to the Rift Valley Railways (RVR), after a four-year record of concessionary negotiations.

RVR will henceforth run both the country’s railways on a 25 year concessionary arrangement that has since been fraught with teething controversy.

RVR is a consortium led by South Africa’s Sheltam Trade Close Corporation and will revamp operations of the railways on a loan of US$64 million from two international financiers.

The international Finance Corporation (IFC) and Germany’s KFW will both grant the concessionaire a US$32 million each to kick start a reform programme that is expected to bolster the railways’ profitability.

The move is part of a wider resolve by Kenya and Uganda to put in force public sector reforms aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness in rail transportation systems and to expand rail network to the great lakes region as an impetus to a diversified economic growth.

Yesterday, however, the handing over ceremony was dogged by delays after the parties demanded that IFC and KFW affirm their pledges on the loans to RVR before the two countries endorse the hand over.

Representatives of the countries who included Uganda’s Minister for Works, Transport and Communications John Nassira and Kenya’s Chirau Mwakwere demanded that the financiers pen down their commitment to fulfilling the loan agreement before the deal could be wrapped up.

This was after a direct agreement was reached and unanimously signed by Kenya and Uganda in Kampala last week, endorsing all articles and provisions of the deal.

“We have resolved all the issues that were pending and the handing over is going to proceed as scheduled. We just wanted to be sure before proceeding with the deal. Some of these things require us to be sure,” Treasury Permanent Secretary (PS) Joseph Kinyua told journalists.

Said he: "The commitment we needed was not there up to this morning and this is solely the reason why we have been locked up in deliberations since the day began. Otherwise, no party feels aggrieved as far as the matter is concerned."

The officials were locked up in a crisis meeting from early morning to 1 pm yesterday, re-igniting earlier fears that one of the parties to the deal had been dissatisfied with the arrangements.

Railway workers, stakeholders and board members of the Kenya Railways, who had turned up for the handing over ceremony, were forced to walk away after the organizers rescheduled the 8 am ceremony to 1 pm.

The concession agreement scheduled the transfer of operations for August 1, but the actual start date was moved to yesterday, to give an ample time for Kenya and Uganda to fulfil all the conditions stipulated in the deal.

The period was also meant to enable the two governments to implement country specific transitional measures aimed at ensuring smooth operation of railway services before and leading to handover as well as finalize core labour related issues such as settlement of terminal benefits.

The High Court had earlier suspended the handover when pensioners sought a delay to claim a Sh6.8 billion worth of benefits.

The Uganda railway workers’ union has also opposed the transfer in court.

Further delays resulted when the Kenya Railways Pensioners moved to petition the government to approve the transfer of identified company assets to the pension’s scheme before the corporation’s operations could be handed over to the concessionaire.

The Kenya Railways Pensioners Association (KERAPA), whose value of pensioners’ scheme in assets and liquid cash is estimated to stand at Sh2.6 billion, had wanted the scheme’s fund to be processed before the final handover.

The consortium is required to put in a minimum US$6 million each year and to increase traffic by 75 per cent in the first five years.

It will equally offer a 40 per cent shareholding to Kenyan and Uganda investors by the end of the fifth year of operations.

In Kenya, the railway takes less than 30 per cent of cargo and the rest is transported by road, although rail is the cheaper mode of transport.

The concessionaire is also expected to retain between 2 800 and 3 600 of the existing staff of 6 300.

According to Railways Africa, the giant and trouble-ridden Kenya Railways Corporation will only retain a paltry 30 employees. The surplus will receive severance payments.

“KRC has identified assets worth Sh12.4 billion to start the Kenya Railways staff retirement benefits scheme (KRSRBS),” officials said.

The assets, mainly land and buildings, will be sold and funds from the proceeds will be used to establish the scheme. The government has been asked to contribute Sh1.5 billion to start the fund.

Alexander Forbes Financial Services has been retained as consultants, and advice is being given by the World Bank, Kenya’s Central Bank and the National Treasury.

According to acting managing director of Kenya Railways Corporation Vitalis Ong’ong’o, the 8 665 existing pensioners will be paid all their accumulated pensions and other dues before the concessioning. KRC currently pays out Sh55m monthly on pensions. Uganda and Kenya have finally signed a joint railway concession agreement aimed at revamping the ailing railway network between the two countries to enhance trade and movement.

“With this partnership, the government is confident that the concessionaire will live up to its commitments to better the performance of the railways,” said Ezra Suruma, Uganda’s Minister for Finance, who signed the agreement on behalf of Ugandan government.

He was quoted by Daily Monitor on Tuesday as saying Ugandan and Kenyan economies had suffered because of inadequate transport facilities, especially railway transport for bulk transportation.

Kenyan Minister of Transport Chirau Ali Mwakwere said while infrastructure services were provided by the government-owned enterprises, like railways, they failed to be competitive and well performing.

“Our railways corporations by themselves have been unable to generate adequate funds for investment. Moreover, to improve performance, most public enterprises urgently needed significant investment,” Mwakwere said.

Uganda’s Transport Minister John Nasasira said the two railways would be handed over at a ceremony in Nairobi on Wednesday.

The railway’s privatization process commenced four years ago.

After a competitive bidding process, a South African investor, Rift Valley Railways (RVR), has taken over the two corporations, who won a contract of running the railway network for 25 years.

Until the late 1980s, Uganda Railways Corporation and Kenya Railways Corporation were the major players in transport sector before the business went down following the liberalization of the industry and improvement of the road network.

In 1995, the passenger service from Kampala to Nairobi was terminated.

However, the revamping of the East African Community brought a new light to the ailing railway corporation after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2003 to move to the process of a joint concession.

The move was in line with the objectives of the EAC in providing safe, efficient and reliable railway operation and recognition of mutual dependence on one another.

See also:

End of an era at Kenya Railways

Kenya Times: 01 Nov' 2006
By KARIUKI NDUNG'U

Rift Valley Railways, the concessionaire who is taking over the management of the Kenya-Uganda Railways, has assured customers that there will be no change in the tariff structure following the hand over of the corporation to them.

In a statement, Roy Puffett, managing director, Rift Valley Railways, said that it would be unfair to raise tariffs in the short run.

“We understand that most of the contracts leading to goods being transported on the railway now and in the coming months were entered into under the prevailing tariff structure. In order to ensure a smooth transition from the previous management to ours and to minimize disruption of business we will continue with the current tariff structure until further notice”, said Puffett.

At the same time, the government will officially hand over the Kenya-Uganda Railways management to RVR, bringing to an end its hold on the state parastatal.The function will be graced by Uganda's minister for works, transport and communications John Nasarira.

Kenya will be represented by transport minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, the Kenya Railways board, and the representatives from the International Finance Corporation(IFC).Today, dignitaries will watch as the KR flag is lowered and replaced by the RVR flag, bringing to an era of public transport in East Africa.

After the handing over ceremony, dignitaries will be board a special train to Athi River.

IFC is the financing arm of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), that funds the operations of quasi government institutions on a long term basis.

The change in the management brings to a close an era of loss making at the parastatal that has forced it sell its assets and retrench workers.

The cash crunch at Kenya Railways is a stark contrast to the firm's healthy financial status at pre independence.

Then, the management of the organization was placed on the three East African government's, under the auspicies of the then East African Commission.

But when the commission folded up in 1967, each of the member states took over the management of the rails within their borders.

The railway was the transport of choice for goods and commuters, largely because of the low prevalence of accidents and safety

.The safety of commuters and goods endeared many organisations to use rail transport, until financial breeding at the institutions, occasioned by poor management set in.

RVR charged with the herculean task of turning around the firm, that was almost grounding to a halt.

An improved railway system will lead to a cut in the cost of doing business.

He said that his team, composed of a group from the concessionaire and managers absorbed from the current Kenya Railways have been studying the tariff regime and operations of the railway system with the aim of improving them.

He added, “Any future changes in tariffs will be done in a systematic and structured way so that our clients know why the adjustments have been made necessary and what the benefits are in store for them. We want to be mindful of the welfare of businesses that have supported that railway line for the last 100 years.”

Even though freight is the more profitable in railway business, the moratorium on tariffs will also be extended to commuters and passenger train service which RVR promised to retain in the concession agreement.

“The commuter service has proved very popular with the low income urban dwellers as is the case all over the world due to high cost of road transport. We want to make sure our commuters enjoy the moratorium on tariffs as we look for ways of improving the service”, said Puffett.

The concession document was signed between the concession partners in Kampala Uganda on Monday while the official handing over of the Kenya-Uganda railway line between Mombasa and Kampala takes place in Nairobi today.

See also:

Kenya, Uganda hand over railways to private firm

Engineering News: 02 November 2006

Kenya and Uganda on Wednesday handed over their struggling railway operations to a private consortium hoping to boost efficiency and cut the cost of doing business in the east Africa region, officials said.

The two countries' 110-year-old dilapidated railways will be jointly managed by the Rift Valley Railways, a consortium led by South Africa's Sheltam Trade Close.

"Today we stand on the threshold of a historic change as we witness fundamental restructuring of the railways," Kenya's Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere said at a handing-over ceremony.

"We witness the transfer of the management and operations of the railways from government enterprises to the private sector for the first time in over a century," Mwakwere said.

The railway network in Kenya and Uganda has suffered due to lack of investment and is often cited as a major impediment to doing business in the region.

The landlocked countries of Rwanda, Burundi and eastern Congo have depended on the railways to move goods to and from the port of Mombasa, but have in recent years been forced to shift to expensive and unreliable road transport.

Experts said a better-managed network would help to significantly lower the cost of doing business and increase the competitiveness of products from the region.

The Rift Valley Railways last year won a 25-year concession to run both countries' railways after it agreed to share 11,1% of its profits, but the deal has been fraught with controversy and delay due to litigation from pensioners who used to work for the Kenya and Ugandan state railways.

The consortium is required to pay a $3 million entry fee and invest a minimum $6-million annually and increase traffic by 75% in the first five years.

Rift Valley Railways' Managing Director Roy Puffet said the company's priority will be to computerise the operations of the railways before moving to upgrade the infrastructure.

The handing over ceremony was delayed on Wednesday for more than 10 hours as the government, lenders and consortium partners engaged in last minute negotiations over financing.

Officials said one of Rift Valley Railways' consortium partners had planned to quit, unhappy with the interest rates to be charged on a $64-million loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Germany's KfW.

"It is the IFC where they thought to be more expensive and they tried to see whether terms could be better. But the IFC felt this is a commercial business and the interest they are giving are reasonable," Joseph Kinyua, permanent secretary at Kenya's finance minister, told Reuters.

The construction of the railway that crosses the two countries started in Mombasa in 1896. The railway was split in two in 1978 when the three east African countries of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania parted ways over political and economic differences.

The three countries have revived the East African Community (EAC) and are currently trying to form a political federation.

Officials said the joint concessioning of the railway was a positive step toward deepening regional integration.

"The joint concessioning is a good example of how we should move the dream of east Africa so that we can one day be one country," said Rukia Chekamando, Uganda's state minister for privatisation.

Posted on 10:10 AM | Permalink

Manchester Evening News: 1st November 2006
Alan Salter

A TRAIN company has become the latest public transport operator to hire security guards to protect passengers from thugs.

Northern Rail, which runs most of Greater Manchester's commuter services, has spent £1.5m setting up mobile security teams across its network.

They will respond to incidents in cars equipped with communication and video equipment.

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The specialist equipment will also allow the security workers to remotely monitor stations and car parks while the teams are responding to an incident or patrolling the route by train.

They will work in partnership with British Transport Police, sharing intelligence and attending regular joint briefings.

Martyn Guiver, security and emergency planning manager for Northern Rail, said: "The safety of our passengers and staff is paramount.

Routes

"The security teams will patrol the network as a visible deterrent to the small minority of people committing anti-social behaviour along our routes."

It follows the introduction of private security guard patrols on buses and in bus stations in Greater Manchester earlier this month, with mobile teams ready to be called to incidents, following buses and travelling on them.

Metrolink also employs public safety officers late at night to combat anti-social behaviour.

It recently concluded a deal with Greater Manchester Police to keep its dedicated team of officers patrolling the network.

Det Insp Andrea Rainey, of British Transport Police, has worked closely with Northern on setting up the new teams. She said. "The new security teams are supported by British Transport Police as a highly-visible, reassuring presence to the travelling public on Northern routes.

"We hope their presence on trains will have a positive effect in preventing anti-social behaviour and low-level crime."

Northern Rail figures for the Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire area reveal there were 30 physical and 109 verbal assaults on staff in the year to November 2005.

Posted on 08:53 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 1 November 2006

Four people were injured when two engineering trains crashed near Bristol on Wednesday.

The collision, in the Acton Turville area, closed the line between Swindon and Bristol Parkway until around 1500 GMT, leading to some delays.

Two rail staff who were hurt remain in hospital and 50 homes near the crash site were evacuated to allow giant cranes to lift the wreckage.

An investigation is under way to find the cause of the collision.

Trains between Swindon and South Wales were being delayed by up to half an hour - with trains being re-routed through Bath Spa.

Ben Herbert from Network Rail said the collision was on a stretch of line closed to passengers.

"The area was closed for track renewal - we're replacing sleepers and the ballast - the gravel under the tracks," he said.

"The trains are used by engineers to carry out work. We've evacuated the nearby houses purely as a precaution while the trains are lifted off the tracks."

Posted on 08:49 AM | Permalink

BBC News: 31 October 2006

London's mayor has backed down over comments he made about the employment on the Tube of a convicted terrorist.

Mostafa was jailed in Yemen in 1999

Ken Livingstone had earlier said he was "happy" for Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, son of jailed Islamic cleric Abu Hamza, to be working on the underground.

Mostafa, 25, was jailed for three years in Yemen in 1999 for plotting a bombing campaign.

But the mayor said because Mostafa had failed to declare his convictions, his employers "are correct to dismiss him".

"Mr Mostafa has convictions in Yemen," he said. "These must be taken into account.

"I was not aware of this man's convictions at the time of my press conference this morning, only of his family" - Ken Livingstone

"They should have been brought to light by those doing the security checks, the failure to do so must be investigated.

"I was not aware of this man's convictions at the time of my press conference this morning, only of his family.

"It is clear that anyone who has been involved in terrorism in any form cannot be employed on the London Underground."

Earlier, during a press conference at City Hall, Mr Livingstone appeared to back Mostafa's employment on the London Underground.

"Has he broken any law here in Britain? [No, so] we are happy to have him working for us," he said.

Mostafa was convicted of plotting to sabotage economic and tourist sites in Yemen in August 1999, when he was 17-years-old.

He has recently been working as a labourer for a company contracted to Tube Lines, one of London Underground's maintenance firms.

'International crime'

It is understood Mostafa's previous convictions were not brought to light during his recruitment and he has since been dismissed.

The Tube's vetting procedures were supposed to have been intensified since the 7 July bombings, but Bob Crow, head of the RMT, has called for a review of the Underground's current recruitment procedures.

Labour MP Andrew Dismore said applicants with terrorism-related convictions anywhere in the world should not be eligible for employment on the Underground.

"The key point here is that terrorism is an international crime," he said.

"Bearing in mind what happened on 7/7, he should not have been working on the Underground."

Mostafa's father, Abu Hamza, was jailed for seven years in February for incitement to murder and inciting racial hatred.

Posted on 08:41 AM | Permalink

RMT: November 1 2006

MORE THAN 900 RMT diving personnel in the North Sea oil and gas industry have responded to the union’s instruction to take action on pay with complete determination and an absolutely rock-solid strike, the union said today.

Commenting on reports coming in overnight and this morning from officials and reps, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the overwhelming rejection of the employers' pay offer had galvanised members into united and determined action.

"Our North Sea members' action is 100 per cent solid this morning," Bob Crow said.

"Every vessel operated by the signatories to the agreement is either in port or heading for port, and there are no diving support vessels operational in the North Sea

"Members on vessels as far afield as Singapore, the Canaries and Egypt have also joined the strike, and members have also walked out of training courses in Norway.

"We have been assured of complete support by our Norwegian union colleagues, and have received welcome offers of solidarity from the International Transport Workers' Federation and its affiliates.

"The mood is one of complete determination, and we will be holding a mass meeting of members in Aberdeen on Friday further to co-ordinate our strike efforts and to update members on any developments.

"The employers should now be in no doubt that our members are determined to reverse the decades of pay erosion and to win an acceptable pay award, and we are ready to talk with them at any time," Bob Crow said.

See also:

Divers strike after deal rejected

BBC News: 1 November 2006

About 900 North Sea divers and support personnel have begun an indefinite strike after rejecting the latest pay offer from employers.

The union says divers are carrying out dangerous work

Members of the RMT union voted against the new three-year deal by 516 to 240 in a poll that closed at noon.

The offer, recommended by union bosses, promised a 20% increase immediately, plus another 5% from April next year.

There has been concern that any strike action would bring chaos to parts of the UK oil and gas sector.

The RMT said divers were carrying out probably the most dangerous job in the North Sea.

"Our members have now made it quite clear the offer on the table falls short of their aspirations" - Bob Crow, RMT union

They descend to depths of up to 130ft in freezing waters, carrying out installation and maintenance work on wells and pipelines.

The latest poll followed a ballot in September on an earlier pay deal.

The RMT said the walkout would continue for as long as it took for employers to come back with a better deal.

'Substantial offer'

The union's general secretary Bob Crow said: "This result shows just how angry RMT diving personnel have become after 20 years of pay erosion.

"North Sea divers do a particularly difficult job in a hazardous industry, yet over two decades their earnings have slipped by 20% in the average pay tables, while the oil and gas companies have been raking in super-profits.

"Our members have now made it quite clear the offer on the table falls short of their aspirations and they will therefore be on strike from a minute after midnight."

A spokesman for the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) said: "We are disappointed that the divers have rejected the latest substantial pay offer despite their union's recommendation to accept it.

"We sincerely hope that the strike will have no effect on North Sea production, although the winter period is a quiet time for diving activity because of the seasonal nature of the work on account of the weather."

Posted on 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Transport Briefing: 01/11/06

Work to install a signalling system that could increase the capacity of the national rail network without building new routes is set to begin this month.

Network Rail will shortly sign a £59m contract to convert the Cambrian line, from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli from traditional traffic light signals to the European Rail Traffic Management System.

All 12 trackside signals will be removed and replaced by a digital radio link with sensors between the rails telling each train exactly how far ahead from the next train it is. When the system goes live in December 2008, the time and distance needed to safely separate each train will be significantly reduced.

Although the Cambrian line has been selected for the trial because it forms a self-contained part of the rail network, the technology will eventually be applied to highly congested routes to allow more trains to operate.

At present, lines are divided into fixed 'blocks', entry to which is controlled by signals. A train has to wait for the service in front to leave a block before receiving a green light to enter it. The ERTMS Level 2 system planned for the UK will create a greater number of shorter blocks by linking radio equipment on trains with trackside sensors.

On the East Coast Main Line, the current block system means that the minimum gap between 125mph trains is three minutes. However, with ERTMS this could be reduced to two and a half minutes, allowing an extra four trains an hour to be timetabled. The safe time gap could be further reduced as successive upgrades of the technology are rolled out, allowing even more trains to run.

Unlike the radio-based, moving block signalling system planned for the West Coast Main Line when Britain's railways were privatised, which was subsequently found to be too difficult and expensive to implement, ERTMS Level 2 is a proven technology. The system has already been introduced by Alstom on the high-speed line between Rome and Naples, where trains run at 186mph without any signals to separate them.

If a driver makes an emergency stop the change of speed will be communicated instantly to the train behind and the brakes will automatically engage. As well as offering improvements in capacity and safety, it also removes the need for maintenance of signalling equipment. The technology also has the potential to allow trains to operate without drivers in the future.

Simon Kirby, Network Rail’s director of major projects, said a review of ERTMS next month (December) would decide how to introduce it elsewhere. "Clearly we will go for a more complex line [than the Cambrian route] where there is more need to improve capacity for freight and passengers."

Network Rail is expected to announce options for equipping further lines in January.

The system will also remove the small remaining risk of drivers running past red lights and hitting another train, the cause of seven deaths at Southall, Middlesex, in 1997 and 31 at Ladbroke Grove, West London, in 1999. The TPWS automatic braking system has been installed on most of the network but is fully effective only at speeds below 75mph (120kmph).

Posted on 08:30 AM | Permalink

To all First Great Western Driver Members: 25th October 2006

Dear Colleagues,
SECOND REFERENDUM OF RMT DRIVER MEMBERS
Please be advised that since the massive rejection of a proposal document by RMT Driver members employed by First Great Western earlier this year, further negotiations have since taken place with RMT involvement at Drivers’ Divisional Council and a revised document has been issued by the company.

I enclose a copy of the said document and, once again, members are asked to vote NO and reject the offer. A ballot paper and return envelope is provided for this purpose.

The most glaring thing about the new document is its almost complete similarity to the package that our members overwhelmingly rejected in August. It is nothing more than a re-jig of what was on offer before and in real terms we are no further forward. However, there is one element that causes me extreme concern and that is the slight increases in pay rates offered for former Wessex and Link Drivers. It is how these increases were arrived at that worries me and what this bodes for the rest of the harmonisation exercise. I will comment more substantially on this later.

One of our biggest concerns about the previous document was that there was no clear timetable set for harmonisation and none of the ‘milestones’ which the company referred to had been made clear. The new document, in an attempt to address these very issues, only serves to make matters worse.

The document starts by listing, and supposedly defining, six ‘milestones’ which the company have now given themselves almost a whole year to reach and a further three months before they need to make any attempt to start implementing the milestones. With the exception of nmumber 5, none of the milestones, which are given below, appear to make any real sense:

1. A review of:
a) Rostering and resourcing related conditions of service
b) Non-rostered and non-resourcing related conditions of service
2. Diagramming and linking exercises related to the review of rostering and resourcing related conditions, including a Driver depot strategy. (The FGW franchise depot strategy plan does not include the closure of any depots)
3. Costing of proposals
4. Review of costing exercise outputs
5. Development of final harmonisation package
6. Approvals processes (management and trade unions)

Having set the above agenda, management have also now set a timetable of sorts for harmonisation. As I said, they have given themselves until next September to complete negotiations and a phased implementation will commence sometime in 2008. Predictably, there is still no time limit by which this phasing exercise need be completed.

By contrast, and as before, full Cross Cover will be introduced immediately and with a much faster timetable for the route and traction training required for Cross Cover implementation than the timetable that FGW will apply to pay and conditions issues. Indeed, according to management’s document, this training should have commenced last month.

It is clear that FGW’s Driver Cross Cover programme sets very ambitious targets which the company require in order to fulfil their franchise obligations and I would conclude that the current proposed pay offer sells Drivers’ cooperation with these new working conditions far too cheaply.

Increased pay offer for Former Wessex and Link Drivers

In their original proposal document, FGW tabled percentage increases for 2005 of 3.5%, 3.2% and 4% for FGW, Link and Wessex Drivers respectively with everybody then getting RPI plus 1% in 2007. This remains the case except that former Link and Wessex Drivers will now get an additional sum of around £150 put into the annual salary.

But this not only comes at a cost for the Drivers concerned, but it also hands management huge productivity savings. This £150 productivity bonus is in exchange for Link and Wessex Drivers accepting a reduced booking-on time from 10 to 5 minutes bringing them into line with HSS Drivers. This is in fact the first and only real act of harmonisation at this time and already management are on the make.

Having done a costing exercise in respect of Wessex Drivers, we calculate that the annual value of the reduced booking-on time is around £246. This means management are seeking to pocket almost £100 per Driver at the very first opportunity.

This completely devalues the supposed 4.5%+ increase for Wessex Drivers making it no better than the 3.8% one-year-deal RMT negotiated across the board for all other grades without strings or productivity. And this increase we negotiated for non-Driving grades is certainly superior to the 3.5% increase for HSS Drivers which is dependant on Cross Cover plus whatever other bombshells that the company might drop during negotiations. The company also make substantial savings from Link Drivers. Indeed, the reduction in booking-on time devalues their increase to below 3% because it’s paid for by productivity.

As I said stuff like this worries me and it’s a clear indication of how management will conduct the rest of the harmonisation negotiations if they are allowed to get away with it at this stage. There is a potential for huge productivity savings at the expense of Drivers.

I stand by RMT’s position that pay negotiations should have been dealt with separately through the normal bargaining all grade procedures. As you can see, Drivers have already lost out and are being treated less favourably than all other grades from whom no up front productivity is being demanded in exchange for a pay rise.

It further troubles me that ASLEF are prepared to discuss the concept of ‘Surplus Drivers’ whilst taking into account ‘business requirements’. This effectively waters down the trade union stance of no compulsory redundancies. Although in reality there is little or no chance of Driver redundancies at this stage of this re-franchise, who knows what the future has in store? What if First Great Western suffer a financial crisis like GNER (and it could happen) do we really want to be put in a position where we defend people’s jobs subject to ‘business requirements’.

I make no apologies for labouring on the negative aspects of the deal before you, but it really is fundamentally flawed. FGW successfully put in bids for an operation three times the size of what they started with. They should have known that harmonisation would be a primary issue and thought and action on this should have been put in at the bidding stage.

Instead we find ourselves playing a waiting game with a proposal document consisting of nothing more than meaningless babble, productivity and no real improvements in pay and conditions for FGW Drivers. There is no way RMT can recommend this package for acceptance.

Vote No!

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow
GENERAL SECRETARY

Posted on 08:20 AM | Permalink

Al Sabaah: November 01

Iraq and Iran have agreed on railroad project between the two countries via Khanqeen-al-Muthria-Khasrowi Karmeshah-Basra- al-Shalmacha- KhormShahr. The costs reach to $100 millions.

An official source at the Ministry of Transport clarified to as-Sabah that "the length of the project reaches inside the Iraqi lands to 35 km, while 12 km inside the Iranian lands of Kazeria, northern of al-Maqal train.

Posted on 08:10 AM | Permalink

Angola Press: 11/01

Harare - Zimbabwe has imported an assortment of rail equipment worth US$10.3 million from China, Zimbabwean Transport Minister Chris Mushohwe, said here Tuesday.

He said the equipment would help modernise Zimbabwe`s rail system, plagued by recent derailments widely blamed on antiquated systems.

According to the minister, the equipment has arrived in the country, and installation has started.

He said Zimbabwe was also planning to import 10 locomotives from China.

"NRZ (National Railways of Zimbabwe) is now re-negotiating with its Chinese partners to have the delivery of 10 locomotives first and will later raise money for city trains," Mushohwe added.

Posted on 07:37 AM | Permalink

Sydney Morning Herald: November 2, 2006
Philip Hopkins and Stephen Moynihan

VICTORIA's country rail network will require a massive lift in capital expenditure to return its tracks to the condition they were in before its 1999 privatisation.

With both sides of the Victorian Government committed to buying back the network from Toll Holdings' Pacific National for $134 million, an industry source yesterday estimated it would probably cost an extra $200 million to upgrade the system.

The Essential Services Commission has estimated $28.4 million per year is required for regular maintenance alone and a further $44.5 million is needed for major periodical maintenance.

According to Toll Holdings boss Paul Little, Victoria was the only state where Pacific National owned and controlled the network.

Any investment in improving the infrastructure was deemed risky because of the line's reliance on grain traffic and was unlikely to produce a high level of return, he said.

The track was in very poor condition and received a D rating in Engineers Australia's 2005 Victorian infrastructure report card.

"Major funding commitments are required," the report said.

The former government-owned VLine Freight was sold to Rail America for $163 million in May 1999, about half of which was for the rail track. Rail America sold Freight Australia to Pacific National for $285 million in 2004.

The state's farmers, the National Party and local councils have been clamouring for the Bracks Government to buy back the track. They complained that the deteriorating track was undermining their competitiveness.

Announcing the buyback, Premier Steve Bracks said the Government would undertake a comprehensive review and safety assessment of the rail network over the next year.

"The new arrangements will allow for better maintenance of the tracks by the Government and facilitate better access to the network," he said.

The Liberal Party also vowed to buy back the network if elected.

See also:

Australian rail network lease sold back

The Australian: November 01, 2006

TRANSPORT group Toll Holdings Ltd's rail operator, Pacific National, has sold back its lease of the Victorian regional rail network to the Victorian Government for $133.8 million.

Pacific National said the price approximated book value.

Toll chief executive Paul Little said the Victorian regional rail network had always struggled to be commercially viable because of under-utilisation.

He said rail networks generally struggled to generate commercial returns, and governments around the world had a set of objectives for enhancing rail networks that did not always meet normal commercial returns.

Mr Little said the main reason for the lack of commercial viability in the Victorian regional rail network was that it relied upon the cartage of grain.

"In a good year, you could argue that the network was viable. In a poor year, it struggled to be viable, and as we all know, there's been two or three poor years," he said.

"The commercial viability needs to be addressed in a big-picture sense, and I think the (Victorian) Government is better placed to do that."

Mr Little said the sale of the lease would not affect the movement of interstate freight.
It would have no material effect on the revenue or profits of Pacific National.

Nor would it affect the sales process of 50 per cent of Toll's 100 per cent stake in Pacific National.

Toll undertook to divest half of Pacific National to gain approval from the competition watchdog for Toll's $6 billion-plus takeover of stevedore Patrick Corp - the joint-owner of the rail operator - earlier this year.

Mr Little also said he did not expect that the sale of the lease would have a material impact on the price that Toll would get for the 50 per cent stake in Pacific National.

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said in a statement that the 45-year lease arrangements put in place by the previous Kennett government in 1999 were flawed and had resulted in significant deterioration of the regional rail network.

"Taking the track back into public ownership will enable our government, if re-elected, to provide greater certainty to our struggling farmers who are suffering the effects of one of the worst droughts on record, rising interest rates and spiralling fuel costs," Mr Bracks said.

Under the proposed arrangements, a subsidiary of VicTrack would manage the track and all employees would be offered jobs on equivalent terms.

Toll shares were steady at $15.50 at 1434 AEDT today.

Posted on 07:25 AM | Permalink

RMT: October 31 2006

NETWORK RAIL'S admission today in court to a series of blunders before the Ladbroke Grove disaster in 1999 amounts to "weasel words, too little and far too late," Britain's biggest rail union said today.

"Seven years on this is yet another sick legal farce that highlights the utter lack of accountability for corporate killers," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"Even if they are hit with a masssive fine, it'll only be recycled public money, when frankly it should be being spent on safety improvements like the automatic train protection we are still waiting for.

"When it comes to huge corporations, public or private, fines simply don't work: Balfour Beatty were fined £7.5 million for negligence which caused four deaths at Hatfield, yet they've since been rewarded with a £363 million contract for the East London Line extension.

"We need a corporate manslaughter law that puts bosses who kill in the dock with the prospect of prison," Bob Crow said.

Posted on 01:57 AM | Permalink

Independent Online: 01 November 2006
By Barrie Clement, Transport Editor

Taxpayers and rail passengers will pay an "unlimited" fine for the blunders committed by Railtrack which led to one of Britain's worst rail disasters.

Network Rail, the state-backed organisation which took over from the private sector Railtrack, yesterday admitted there had been a catalogue of errors that contributed to the Ladbroke Grove crash in 1999 in which 31 people died and 400 were injured.

While the new infrastructure company pleaded guilty to "contributing" to the crash, it did not accept full responsibility or "causation".

Sources close to the Network Rail argued that the primary cause of the accident was the failure of driver Michael Hodder to stop at a red light as he drove a Thames Trains commuter service out of Paddington station. In 2004 Thames Trains admitted failing to train Mr Hodder properly and was fined £2m.

Peter Rayner, a consultant to the inquiry into the disaster, said Network Rail should admit "setting a trap" for drivers at Ladbroke Grove. He pointed out that eight other drivers had driven through signal SN109 while it was set at red in the six years before the tragedy.

In his report into the disaster Lord Cullen said there had been a " lamentable failure" on Railtrack's part to respond to recommendations of inquiries into two previous serious incidents at the signal, which was badly sited.

Yesterday sentence was adjourned to 18 December to give the defence an opportunity to examine a mass of "unused material".

The present rail infrastructure company is a "not for profit" organisation with no orthodox shareholders and so the fine will be paid out of funds supplied by the Exchequer and by passengers through rail fares.

Nigel Sweeney QC, defending, told a 20-minute hearing at London's Blackfriars Crown Court that he had been instructed to enter a guilty plea to various breaches of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act.

Network Rail admitted failing to ensure "so far as was reasonably practicable" the safety of passengers.

The charge, covering two A4 sheets of paper, said the signal was not properly sited and that its configuration could be "found nowhere else in the UK".

It went on to criticise Network Rail ­ Railtrack Plc at the time for failing to take any measures to deal with the problem.

Bereaved relatives attending the hearing criticised the adjournment as yet another example of "prevarication" by Network Rail.

Her son, Sam, a 24-year-old designer manager, from Bloomsbury, central London, was killed on the Thames train which collided with an oncoming Great Western express.

"How many times can they keep delaying? This has been going on for seven years. But we are going to stick this out, we are not going to vanish."

Louise Christian, a solicitor who acted for bereaved families, said: " Seven years afterwards and, after years of denying responsibility including throughout the public inquiry, Railtrack has finally accepted some sort of blame.

"The problem is they have pleaded guilty in a forum where there can be no proper accountability because the only penalty is a fine against a company heavily subsidised by the taxpayer."

A spokesman for Network Rail said: "The Ladbroke Grove tragedy was a terrible event for everyone involved.

"Lessons have been learnt and the rail industry has changed enormously for the better over the past seven years."

He pointed out that the tragedy happened before the Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) became available. The system automatically applies a train's brakes if it is approaching a red signal too quickly to stop. Figures released yesterday showed that the number of trains passing danger signals this summer increased compared with summer 2005.

There were 94 instances of signals passed at danger (Spads) on Britain's mainline railways in July-September this year eight more than in the same period last year, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) said.

Posted on 01:10 AM | Permalink