29 September 2021
RMT Press Office:
RMT calls for new ScotRail timetable plans to be scrapped as survey of company workers says proposals will have negative impact on passengers.
RAIL UNION RMT is today calling for proposals to reduce ScotRail services by around 300 a day, or around 100,000 a year, to be scrapped, as a survey of RMT ScotRail members revealed that an overwhelming majority of these frontline rail workers believe that the proposals would have a negative impact on passengers
The survey of nearly 400 ScotRail workers found that:
• 96% believe the cuts will affect passengers negatively; and
• 89% believe the cuts will deter passengers from the rail network.
As the Scottish Government gears up to host the UN climate change conference COP26, RMT believes it is nothing short of a scandal that at the same time, it is overseeing proposals to slash sustainable rail services.
RMT believes that the cuts will deter passengers from the rail network, and push more people into cars, making a mockery of the Scottish Government’s climate change targets.
The union says that the proposed service cuts are a short-sighted cost cutting measure that has nothing to do with passengers.
As RMT previously revealed, a ScotRail commissioned report by Professor Iain Docherty advocated service cuts, job losses and ticket offices closures across Scotland’s railway, and a massive 97% of survey respondents said that they thought the service cuts now being proposed by Abellio ScotRail would be used to try and justify job cuts in the future.
RMT is calling on the Scottish Government to listen to Scotland’s frontline rail workers and block these damaging cuts.
General secretary Mick Lynch said:
“RMT’s frontline ScotRail members know first-hand that these proposed service cuts will be terrible for passengers and Scotland’s railway.
“Rather than rebuilding Scotland’s railway after the pandemic, these cuts will deter passengers from the rail network and push more people into cars.
“RMT is calling on the Scottish Government, which is managing the ScotRail franchise, to listen to this indisputable message from frontline rail workers that the cuts will push passengers away from the rail network, and to scrap the proposals to slash ScotRail services.”
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