East Midlands Railway workers strike for second consecutive Saturday over train safety concerns
RMT says faults with new trains are putting staff and passengers at risk
Workers at East Midlands Railway are taking strike action for the second Saturday in a row, as part of an ongoing dispute over safety concerns with the company’s new trains.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) say the new Class 810 fleet has experienced a number of problems since entering passenger service, including issues accessing emergency equipment, faulty doors, air conditioning leaks and faults which have forced trains to be switched off and restarted.
The union says it wants the trains removed from service until the issues are resolved.
John Watson, the RMT’s Midlands Regional Organiser, says the biggest concern is a fault which requires the trains to completely shut down and restart.
“We don’t even know if the train’s activating the track circuits at that point. So it might not even show up on the signalling system.”
He says there have been 16 occasions in the past month where trains have needed to go through the shutdown process.
The union says staff are worried about working on the trains, as well as the impact on passengers.
“Our staff are saying enough’s enough with these. We’ve had talks since April to try and resolve the problems. We haven’t got anywhere.”
Mr Watson also says one of the trains at the centre of the dispute had to be cancelled during last week’s strike action because of a fault.
The Class 810 trains were introduced by EMR in December, after being delayed by around two years. The RMT says more issues have come to light since they entered service.
Mr Watson says the quickest solution would be to temporarily remove the trains and adjust the timetable while repairs are carried out.
“The easiest way would be at the moment is to remove these trains from service.”
EMR response
An East Midlands Railway spokesperson said, “Any suggestion that the Hitachi Rail Class 810 fleet does not meet the required safety standards is incorrect. These trains entered passenger service only after successfully completing all required testing and meeting the rigorous safety standards required by the independent regulator.
“We recognise the Class 810 fleet has encountered performance and reliability issues in service and are working with the manufacturer, Hitachi Rail, to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
“EMR continues to engage in discussions with RMT regarding this dispute."
What happens next?
The RMT says any further strike action will be decided by its members, depending on the progress of talks with EMR.
The union says its preferred outcome is for the trains to either be fixed to a standard staff are confident with, or removed from service until the problems are resolved.
EMR has not given a timescale for when all reliability issues will be fixed.
Planned strike action is set to continue on Saturday 15 August.