Posted 4th February 2022 | 1 Comment
RMT calls Underground strikes
RMT calls Underground strikes
The RMT has called two 24-hour strikes on London Underground. The walkouts on 1 and 3 March are being staged in protest at the continuing financial crisis at TfL, which the RMT alleges has been 'engineered by the government'. General secretary Mick Lynch said: 'A financial crisis has been deliberately engineered by the government to drive a cuts agenda which would savage jobs, services, safety and threaten their working conditions and pensions.' TfL chief operating officer Andy Lord responded: 'It is extremely disappointing that the RMT has today announced strike action, as no proposals have been tabled on pensions or terms and conditions, and nobody has or will lose their jobs as a result of the proposals we have set out.'
IRP criticism 'profoundly unhelpful' says Haines
Critics of the government's Integrated Rail Plan and its £96 billion investment have 'lost the plot', according to Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines. He said: 'Those people who have been prepared to say that £96 billion is a “kick in the teeth” and an insult are doing an enormous disservice with the Treasury, particularly at a time when the economics of the railway are really challenging. The rhetoric that has developed around that has been profoundly unhelpful.’ Network Rail is an arms-length agency of the Department for Transport, and is to be replaced by Great British Railways. Mr Haines is in charge of the transition arrangements, and he said the Bill to authorise GBR could start its progress through Parliament before the summer recess. He warned that ‘Whitehall has to learn to let go’, after GBR has taken over, while railway managers will also need to learn not to automatically refer decisions to the DfT.
Transpennine Express supports business festival
TransPennine Express has announced a new partnership with The Good Business Festival. The event is the world’s largest responsible business festival, and is set to take place on 22, 23 and 24 March in Liverpool. It concentrates on exploring the potential of business to improve lives and realise 'a purpose beyond profit'.
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John Porter, Leeds
Andrew Haines is partly right. I see the IRP as a necessary, but lost opportunity.
The £96bn IRP investment ought to have been sold as the Treasury estimate of all that could be afforded over the 25 year period to 2045. Rail ridership is uncertain post Covid and Benefit to Cost ratios (BCRs) are much lower than they used to be. Both might change at future 3 yearly comprehensive spending reviews - and the best post 2045 schemes should be accelerated at some of those. The IRP should have postponed the unaffordable schemes rather than dropped them.
The HS2 business case and Motts technical report issued last week should have been issued on the same day as the IRP. They show BCRs and Motts Eastern Arm ideas for the £4bn per year ?? post 2045 follow on expenditure. They include a potential Y shaped Core Transpennine Network - serving Bradford & Leeds on separate arms north of Marsden, which avoids overloading NPR’s combined route between Bradford and Leeds.