Union leader calls for urgent GBR talks
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey is calling for urgent talks over the future structure of Great British Railways, following the Second Reading of the Railways Bill on 9 December. The RMT is particularly concerned about the implications for collective bargaining, because the Bill does not say who the employer or employers will be.
Northumberland County Council is bidding to improve the train service from Newcastle upon Tyne to Ashington, which opened a year ago, by continuing trains beyond Ashington to the line’s original terminus at Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.
The last High Speed Trains ran in England on Saturday, when GWR operated four-car ‘Castle Class’ sets in Cornwall between Plymouth and Penzance. The career of the HSTs has spanned almost half a century. HSTs began running on British Rail’s Western Region in 1976, and were then used on other routes which included CrossCountry as well as the West Coast, Midland and East Coast Main Lines.
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