The train blame game continues – and it’s travellers who suffer
If it’s hard for me to keep track of which industrial transport dispute is going on at any given moment, I can only imagine how confusing it must be for the average commuter, writes Helen Coffey
Another day, another rail strike (I seem to be writing that phrase an awful lot this month). If it’s hard for me, a travel editor, to keep track of which industrial transport dispute is going on at any given moment – and this week alone we’ve seen two days of rail disruption, a 24-hour Tube strike and a 48-hour London bus strike – I can only imagine how confusing it must be for the average commuter.
The government seems equally confused by it all. On the one hand, the Department for Transport has vehemently denied that transport secretary Grant Shapps has anything to do with negotiations in the bitter disputes over jobs, pensions, working conditions and pay. In response to RMT general secretary Mick Lynch claiming that a deal could be reached quickly if Shapps simply “loosened the shackles” on train companies, a DfT spokesperson said: “We’ve been very clear that the government and the transport secretary is not involved in negotiations. It is a matter for unions and employers – not government – to engage in meaningful talks to avoid damaging strike action and prevent chaos on the railways.
“This has long been the convention and has been the government’s position under Labour and Conservative governments.”
At the same time, Mr Shapps can’t seem to help getting involved at every turn. On Friday, for example, he threatened to impose new working terms on striking rail employees if they refuse to accept deals on the table, revealing plans to use a section 188 order to end the disputes. “That is the direction that this is moving in now,” he said.
“Everything Grant Shapps does seems to be aimed at ramping up this dispute rather than resolving it,” claimed Luke Chester from the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association in response.
The problem is, while everyone involved keeps pointing fingers at each other – reminiscent of the Spider-Man meme – it’s really the traveller who suffers. No one can condemn workers for demanding more as we teeter on the precipice of a brutal cost of living crisis, but the interminable blame game means it looks like public transport users will be bearing the brunt of political posturing for some time to come.
Yours,
Helen Coffey
Travel editor