The RMT has announced that its members on Chiltern Railways will be taking two 24-hour strikes in October, as the dispute over the staffing of trains on East West Rail continues.

The union is opposing proposals to run the trains between Oxford, Bletchley and Milton Keynes with drivers only. The RMT says a second member of staff with safety-critical responsibilities is essential, and put the matter to its members at Chiltern.

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that the DOO proposed on East West Rail represented ‘a significant risk to safety and the current Train Manager roles’, and that the strikes would be held on 10 and 17 October.

He continued: ‘The actions of Chiltern management to not take these concerns seriously is totally unacceptable. RMT will not accept the watering down of safety on the rail network.’

The union added that it ‘remains available for meaningful talks with the company’.

Chiltern‘s interim managing director Tony Baxter said they were ‘disappointed’ by the outcome of the vote, but expected to run the ‘vast majority’ of trains on strike days.

Chiltern passed into public ownership on 20 September, and the Department for Transport commented that the operator had run most of its services for decades with the driver in ‘full control’ of the doors, and that DOO was approved by the Office of Rail and Road.

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