RMT welcomes improvement plans as ‘good start’

Publication Date: April 3 2007

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union today welcomed Network’s Rail’s plans to spend £2.44 billion on improvements aimed at easing congestion as a “good start” towards creating the massive increase in capacity Britain’s railways need.

RMT welcomed plans announced today to build the new Airdrie-Bathgate line, lengthen platforms, lay new track and undertake resignalling.

"This is a good start towards the massive increase in capacity that our railways need if we are to meet the climate challenge and get people out of cars and aeroplanes and on to trains," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"High on the agenda must also be a new high-speed north-south rail link and the go-ahead for the long-awaited Crossrail project.

"It is important that money invested is spent wisely, and not wasted on bloated PFI-type contracts.

"The fragmentation of our railways created by privatisation stands as a massive impediment to development, and Network Rail can help untangle it by bringing its renewals contracts back in-house

"Bringing train operations back into public ownership is also essential if we are to eradicate the tremendous waste generated by the discredited franchising system," Bob Crow said.