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First Minister slams NR

Mark Drakeford, first minister of Wales, has accused Network Rail of moving staff out of Wales to sustain services in England during recent rail strikes.

RMT members at both TfW Rail and ScotRail voted not to take part in the industrial action. But services were severely constrained by signallers and other NR staff being on strike.

Drakeford told Andrew RT Davies, Conservative leader in the Senedd, that people in Wales had been denied the opportunity to travel by “removing workers to look after what clearly is for them a higher priority than Welsh citizens will ever be”.

NR rejected Drakeford’s assertion and said it was continuing to work with Transport for Wales and other operators “to keep passengers moving where we can”.

We've read it in Passenger Transport - July 1 2022, p6