Avanti train managers suspend Christmas strikes
Planned walkouts by around 300 RMT staff on Avanti West Coast which could have seriously disrupted services over the Christmas and New Year holiday have been suspended, after the employers made a new offer.
The number of people employed in the administration of DfT Operator, which runs nationalised passenger operators, is set to rise from 25 to 100 by the end of the coming year. Alex Hynes, the director-general at DfT Rail Services Group, told MPs on the Commons Transport Committee that DfT Operator would be increasing in size to deal with the growing workload caused by the nationalisation of three more former franchises during 2025.
Train managers on Avanti West Coast who belong to the RMT are set to strike on three days over the Christmas period, in a dispute over rest day working. The union said the company’s proposals had been ‘inadequate’, and that staff had rejected them in a vote by 92.8 per cent, on a turnout of 81 per cent.
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Some train services are still disrupted today after a weekend of wild weather which caused damage to railways in many places, as Storm Darragh swept across Britain. The Met Office issued a rare ‘red’ warning for South Wales and the Bristol Channel on Saturday, which meant the weather posed a threat to life.
Train services on many routes are being disrupted this morning because of a fault with the GSM-R system, which allows train drivers to talk to signallers on a radio link.
FirstGroup is stepping up its open access ambitions by completing the buyout of Grand Union Trains and bidding for a new route to Somerset and Devon. The move is the latest in a series of open access operations from the private sector, which have been made as the Government moves ahead with nationalising all remaining contracted passenger operators.