RMT has asked the Railways Inspectorate to investigate reports that a train was signalled into a platform at the station at the same time as another was being signalled out of it, and to probe the competency of managers being used to staff signal boxes during the signallers’ strike.

“Our information is that at around 13:30 today a train was signalled out of platform ten at Waverley Station at exactly the same time as another was being signalled into it,” RMT general secretary said today.

“If that is true it amounts to a near miss and it raises serious concerns about the competency of the managers Network Rail is using to do our members’ jobs during the dispute, and I have asked the railways inspectorate to investigate as a matter of urgency.

“NR has been attempting to label RMT as a union that considers safety to be optional, but this underlines the double standards of an organisation that is happy to water down its own safety standards during a dispute.

“If one of our members was responsible for a serious blunder like this the book would be thrown at them, yet the company is putting managers who may not have been in a box for years into the front line and putting rail workers’ and passengers’ lives into their hands,” Bob Crow said.

ends

Notes to editors: Fresh talks in the signallers’ dispute will take place at ACAS today (Wednesday). The first of two scheduled 24-hour strikes ends today at noon, and the second is set to begin at noon on Thursday October 9. A ban on overtime and rest-day working began at 00:01 on Tuesday.

RMT signallers and signals supervisors in Scotland voted by a margin of more than two to one for strike action over the breakdown in industrial relations that centres on agreements on rostering and transfers.