Current total of rail industry disputes rises to 23

1. The ‘DfT 14’ are the train operating companies that are controlled by the Department for Transport (DfT): Avanti West Coast, c2c, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern Railway, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains

2. Not yet at formal ‘dispute’ stage, pay negotiations continuing

The RMT rejected what it says are “insulting pay offers, made even more unpalatable when members of the Scottish Parliament received a 6.7% pay rise this year”. Its ballot closes on August 8.

The TSSA warned of a “summer of discontent” as it ballots 500 ScotRail members working in managerial, professional and technical grades. 

It rejected the three-year below-inflation pay deal, and is angry that ScotRail has yet to make a “meaningful offer” to resolve its long-running dispute over on-call working.

The TSSA is also looking for an agreement from ScotRail to move towards a transparent pay structure for management grades. Its ballot closes on August 29.

Unite said it is “full steam ahead”, with 300 ScotRail members balloted. 

Its strike ballot closes on August 20 and strikes “could start in early September”. 

Unite members include rolling stock engineering grades, cleaners, ticket agents, hospitality assistants and conductors. It says the current verbal pay offer “has never been formally tabled” and is for a 2% rise (backdated to April) and a further 1% in January 2025.

ScotRail said it is committed to talks to reach a “fair deal for staff and value for taxpayer subsidy”.

ScotRail’s sudden introduction of an emergency timetable on July 10, owing to a serious shortage of drivers not volunteering to work overtime, has not stopped short-notice cancellations on Sundays.

Notification is normally made on the Friday, less than two days before people travel (although this can slip to Saturday, or not at all).

The Scottish government-controlled operator is running a temporary timetable of 1,660 daily services from Monday to Saturday, mainly by halving peak-hour frequencies. This contrasts with the usual level of around 2,250, a cut of 26% (RAIL 1014). 

Sundays do not form part of the working week for drivers, with rest-day working and overtime used to operate the timetable.

Having rejected a 2024 pay offer, many individual drivers are no longer volunteering for overtime. This is separate from industrial action, for which ballots are under way.

Sundays already see rail replacement buses due to engineering work, and further cuts have seen some routes with no services - and in at least one case, no rail replacement buses either.

Overview of ScotRail ad hoc cuts to Sunday services

• Sunday July 7: Disruption on most routes, with only 75% of services operated. Helensburgh Central – Edinburgh reduced to hourly and Bathgate services impacted. Glasgow Central High Level – Motherwell, all trains cancelled. Balloch – Motherwell and Milngavie – Larkhall reduced to hourly. Trains not calling at Airbles, Barnhill, Alexandra Parade and Duke Street stations.
• Sunday July 14: No advance cuts to services, beyond the emergency timetable.
• Sunday July 21: Edinburgh – Tweedbank reduced from hourly to three-hourly (four trains each way). Edinburgh – North Berwick and Glasgow – Lanark reduced from hourly to two-hourly. Edinburgh – Dunblane reduced from hourly to two trains every three hours. Wemyss Bay – Whinhill replacement buses only, Glasgow – Cumbernauld cancelled and no bus replacement.
• Sunday July 28: Bus replacement due to engineering between Glasgow Queen Street and Anniesland/Linlithgow/Alloa/Crianlarich and also between Mount Florida and Neilston. Additional ‘on-the-day’ cancellations in addition to the temporary timetable with replacement buses “for some services” and “larger gaps between services” on others. ScotRail told passenger to check their journey the day before by using its app as details not provided in advance.

RMT train catering staff on Avanti West Coast staged a two-day strike on July 25-26, over “imposed rosters causing widespread stress and fatigue among staff”.

The union says catering staff face short-notice changes to shifts, job cuts and enforced overtime, affecting their ability to plan family commitments and attend medical appointments.

RMT members have again voted in favour of industrial action on London Underground, in what it calls a fight against ‘flash and dash’.

The dispute began in January 2023 when the RMT learned that LU intended to remove detrainment staff from the Bakerloo, District, Central, Hammersmith & City, Victoria and Jubilee lines, and impose the ‘flash and dash’ procedure for detrainments. 

Under this, train operators check the CCTV, rather than a member of staff looking in each carriage to ensure that all passengers have alighted at the end of a journey.

Describing it as a “serious attack on station staffing levels which threatens passenger safety, as well as that of you and your colleagues”, members voted for industrial action which has now been renewed in a ballot result announced on July 18.

The RMT has instructed all members to continue taking part in industrial action - this involves them physically checking that all passengers have left the train, before it is taken out of service into stabling sidings, or on an empty stock journey.

Continued RMT action has seen London Underground’s pension consultation plans ditched for a further two years.

The long-running issue is over protecting past and future final-salary pension rights.

LU and the government had decided to delay their proposal to begin a consultation to reform the Transport for London Pension Fund to July 1. Now, LU has told the RMT that no consultation on any potential pension reforms will begin before September 30 2026 “at the earliest”.

A meeting of RMT members on August 3 (after this issue of RAIL went to press) was set to discuss the latest pay offer by London Underground for 2024. The union has already rejected a 3% increase, and a subsequent 3.3% offer.

Under the offer, pay bands would remain frozen and any member whose pay rises above the top of their band would receive only a non-consolidated payment for any salary above the band. 

The RMT suspended strikes on Eurostar catering after accepting a new 7.6% pay increase from Rail Gourmet, which runs the contract. 

It follows seven days of strikes, the most recent of which was on April 23.