9 June 2026
RMT Press Office:
Rail workers and industry skills leaders have called for a workforce strategy under Great British Railways, warning that fragmentation, short-term funding cycles and a narrow focus on cutting labour costs are holding back productivity across the railway.
In a joint letter to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, RMT and the National Skills Academy for Rail (NSAR) are encouraging the government to use the creation of Great British Railways as an opportunity to reform the industry's approach to workforce planning, skills and productivity, including through the development of a national GBR Workforce Strategy and a regional pilot scheme.
RMT General Secretary Eddie Dempsey said: "Great British Railways is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a more productive, resilient and publicly accountable railway by investing in the workforce that keeps it running.
"For too long, productivity has been measured through a narrow focus on labour costs while ignoring the billions lost through fragmentation, outsourcing, and inefficient funding models.
"Our joint work with NSAR shows that a stable, highly skilled workforce is a productive asset that drives innovation, reliability and long-term value.
"The creation of GBR should be accompanied by a national workforce strategy, stronger apprenticeship opportunities, strategic planning with trade unions and a serious consideration of bringing work back in-house.
"GBR provides the opportunity to end the waste of fragmentation, invest in skills and create a railway that delivers better value for passengers, workers and taxpayers alike."
NSAR chief executive Neil Robertson said: “The railway sector has substantial scope to improve productivity, but achieving this requires a new approach to funding the workforce.
"Skills must be recognised as an investment that generates long-term value, not simply a cost to be controlled. Fragmented structures and fluctuating funding have too often undermined innovation, eroded expertise and encouraged short-term decision-making.
"A productive railway depends on having the right people, with the right knowledge, in the right roles, and a whole-life-value approach to rail spending would better recognise and measure that contribution.
"That is why we are jointly calling for a GBR Workforce Strategy and a Regional Pilot to put these principles into practice. The creation of Great British Railways presents a rare, generational opportunity to reset the system, and we urge the government to seize it.”
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