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RMT urges Labour mayoral
hopeful to back guards' campaign
LABOUR'S candidate in the Liverpool Region's Mayoral Race
has been urged to declare his support for the campaign to retain guards on
Merseyrail's new fleet of trains. Rail union RMT has called on Steve Rotheram to
pledge that he will do all in his power to ensure that there will be a second
safety critical crew member aboard every Merseyrail train if he wins the May 4
election and takes over responsibility for transport. RMT General Secretary Mick
Cash said:- "Steve's positive and energetic campaign emphasises that he is
'1 of us’, and asks the people of Liverpool City Region to wrest the region from
the malign grip of the Tories. Steve has the opportunity to do just that by
showing that he is on the side of Merseyside's travelling public, and not on the
side of Merseyrail's Dutch owned private operator or the Tory ministers in the
Department for Transport who see profit as more important than people. We have
kept Steve fully informed about the situation in meetings and detailed
briefings, and Steve now has a golden opportunity to influence the outcome of 1
of the key transport issues facing the Liverpool Region. Steve knows that
Merseyrail is Britain's most profitable train operating company, yet is paying
absolutely nothing towards the new fleet, and that it could easily afford to
retain guards and still make a substantial and growing profit. He also knows
that Merseyrail has a contractual clause that forces local taxpayers to foot the
bill for the dispute, when that money could be used to finance a solution to it.
The travelling public are overwhelmingly behind our campaign, and a Labour
pledge to maintain safety, service standards and local jobs will be enormously
popular. What is at stake is maintaining the safest possible operation of the
Merseyrail network for the next 30 years, and whether it remains attractive and
secure or becomes a haven for anti social and criminal behaviour. Now is the
ideal moment for Steve to say he is with the disabled passengers, the women
travelling alone, the elderly, the young; in fact all sections of the community
that use the rail network, who overwhelmingly want a guard on every train." |
