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.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester named the first railways which will join the region’s Bee Network next year, as he unveiled a Northern Class 323 electric unit in promotional Bee Network livery at Manchester Piccadilly.
The results of a new four-weekly survey of passengers which has replaced the National Passenger Survey have been published by the Rail Delivery Group. The twice-yearly National Passenger Survey was launched in 1999 and ran until 2020, when work on it was halted by the Covid pandemic. The replacement Rail Customer Experience Survey started in July, and gathers views from passengers over four week periods.
Transport for London has awarded an eight-year concession for London Overground to FirstGroup, but the RMT has described the decision as ‘outrageous’. The original London Overground lines were launched by London’s first elected Mayor Ken Livingstone in 2007, and the new contract with First Rail London Ltd will replace Arriva’s concession to run Overground, which expires on 3 May 2026.
The Second Reading of the Bill to create Great British Railways has begun in the House of Commons.