RMT last night asked the Department of Transport to undertake an urgent investigation into the company’s plans, and to block practices that would pose unnecessary risk to the public.

RMT understands that at least ten vans containing a highly explosive combination of compressed gasses including acetylene, oxygen and commercial Calor gas, and quantities of petrol, oil and railway detonators will be left on public roads, possibly in the Peterborough and Huntingdon areas.

The vehicles, which are also believed to have been stripped of the key safety notices that tell the emergency services and other road users about the nature of their contents, would normally be parked in secure compounds which will be picketed during the weekend’s strike.

“If what we have heard is confirmed these are breathtakingly reckless plans that could put people’s lives in danger, and last night I asked the Transport Department to investigate as a matter of urgency,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“We have obtained the registration numbers of the vehicles we believe the company intends to leave on public highways in the Peterborough and Huntingdon areas, but our fear is that it intends to repeat this highly dangerous practice across Britain.

“It is bad enough contemplating leaving such a dangerous combination of materials parked in public places, but it is irresponsible almost beyond words to remove the safety notices that the emergency services would rely on should the worst happen.

“Instead of making dangerous plans in a futile attempt to beat our members’ industrial action, Network Rail should give its talks team the authority to negotiate a just settlement to the harmonisation dispute,” Bob Crow said.

Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said: “If clearly dangerous material is to be left in unmarked vans then it is a major concern to firefighters and the public. Some of this material can and does explode with deadly effect if involved in a fire.

“Vans containing this type of material must be clearly marked because of the dangers posed to emergency services and the public. It would be utterly reckless of Network Rail to leave the emergency response services in the dark about the storage of potentially lethal materials.”

ends

Note to editors: RMT yesterday revealed that Network Rail had vetoed progress made during talks on harmonisation of terms and conditions on Tuesday that could have led to the suspension of this weekend’s action.

RMT members will not book on for shifts that commence between midday on Saturday July 26 and 17:59 on Sunday July 27. Members will also not undertake any overtime or ‘on-call’ work between 06:00 on Saturday July 26 and 06:00 on Monday July 28. Weekend maintenance work was brought to a virtual standstill during the first stoppage in the dispute, over the weekend June 14 and 15.