Rail industry needs to up its game and get back on track

HOW convenient that a on storm blew Wednesday, the rail industry to hide behind that old H up allowing excuse: the weather.

- Ross Clark

The images of a flooded Scottish station and a train which hit an overhanging tree, fortunately without injuring anyone, helped to obscure the reason why most of us are struggling to catch trains this week.

In fact, you had to read between the lines to realise that many trains on both the East and West main lines were cancelled because of what Avanti West Coast called "historic leave arrangements". That is code for rail workers deciding to extend their holidays rather than doing overtime. It was the same in the week before Christmas when passengers were stranded due to last-minute cancellations attributed to a "shortage of train crew".

We have become used to strikes and overtime bans over the past 18 months as the rail unions try to hold the country to ransom. We don't require an official strike - workers seem to have adopted the habit of going to work when they feel like it.

INCREDIBLY, rail companies still rely on staff volunteering to run services on Sundays and public holidays.

The idea of simply rostering staff for shifts, as would happen in any private business operating seven days a week is alien to rail unions, who have repeatedly squashed this reform.