3 October 2014
RMT Press Office
ALMOST FIFTEEN YEARS after 31 lives were lost in the Ladbroke Grove rail disaster, Britain’s biggest rail union says that Government policy is dragging the railways closer by the day back towards the same poisonous cocktail of conditions that lead to that tragedy on the 5th October 1999.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said ;
“RMT will never allow those responsible to forget that it was the creation of the privatised Railtrack, and the drive to cut corners in the name of profit, that led to the disaster at Ladbroke Grove and the wholly preventable loss of life. It remains a national scandal that those who created the conditions that led to Ladbroke Grove were able to skulk away without prosecution.
“Privatisation, fragmentation and a complete absence of corporate responsibility were at the heart of the Ladbroke Grove tragedy and now, in 2014, the Government, through their McNulty Rail Review, are dragging us right back to that same toxic mix. The proliferation of private agencies and contractors, often employing casual staff on zero hours contracts, and the opening of the way to privatise infra-structure in association with the greedy train companies is rapidly dragging us back to the edge.
“In addition, the Cullen Inquiry into Ladbroke Grove highlighted the safety critical role of the guard and yet we have a Government that is using the current round of franchising to axe the guards from our trains and move to driver only operation in a lethal operation driven by a combination of pure greed and right-wing ideology.
“If the Government think that RMT will stand back while they ignore the lessons from the recent history on our railways then they should think again. RMT will use every tool at our disposal to both fight the current cuts and to demand the total renationalisation of our railways.”
ENDS
Unity House
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