Trains cancelled after union tells drivers not to walk on snow

Train services were cancelled over the weekend after a trade union told drivers not to walk on snow.

Avanti West Coast services between Liverpool and London did not run for several hours on Sunday morning after members of the Aslef trade union refused to walk to their trains.

The drivers were among those given a 15 per cent pay rise by the Government last summer, sending their salaries soaring to just under £70,000 a year.

Ten trains were prevented from leaving the depot on time, leading to about 14 services being cancelled, according to a Telegraph analysis of Network Rail data. This is likely to have resulted in thousands of passengers having their journeys disrupted and delayed, leaving them in line for Delay Repay compensation.

On Saturday, the Met Office had said that one to three inches of snow was due to fall in the Liverpool area on Sunday, rising to five to 11 inches across Wales and the southern Pennines.

Photographs of the Liverpool Edge Hill depot, taken in the small hours of Sunday morning, show about two inches of snow on rails, electrical cables and other equipment.

The depot is one of Avanti West Coast’s main servicing locations for its long-distance Pendolino trains, which run between London, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.

Health and safety representatives from Aslef told drivers not to turn up at the depot until the snow was cleared because the site was unsafe to walk around, a railway insider claimed.

The insider said: “Edge Hill depot [was] not gritted last night. All walkways covered in snow/ice and therefore no trains are able to leave as there’s no safe walking routes for drivers.”

An Aslef spokesman said: “The walkways were covered in snow and ice, making them unusable. Once they had been cleared, the drivers could access their trains and did so. This is basic safety stuff.”

The spokesman dismissed suggestions that health and safety representatives had been “over-reaching” and instead claimed Avanti was to blame.

But Gareth Bacon, the Conservatives’ shadow transport secretary, said: “Just who is running our railways under this Government? It’s obvious who they’re being run for: the unions,” he said. “Labour needs to stop allowing their union paymasters to call the shots.”

Severe winter weather across the UK on the weekend caused major disruption, with hundreds of homes being left without power and vehicles becoming stranded on snow-hit roads.

The Environment Agency issued 28 flood warnings for large parts of Southern England as well as major rivers such as the Avon and the Taw in Devon.

The snowfall was so heavy that it forced Liverpool and Manchester airports to close their runways on Sunday morning. Both hubs had reopened by 10.15am, around two hours before trains began moving out of Edge Hill.

Refusal of train drivers to walk on snowy walkways is the latest in a list of so-called “Spanish practices” employed by unions that can reduce the amount of work done by their members.

One policy, dating from the 1980s, reportedly said: “All staff working with microwave ovens shall be permitted to take time off from work, with pay, for a medical check of any effects on them from the microwave ovens.”

Another practice consists of restarting scheduled breaks whenever passing bosses greet staff on their downtime.

Avanti declined to comment, but a spokesman said the Liverpool Lime Street train depot is run by Alstom. A spokesman for the train manufacturer said a contractor had to be called back to the depot to clear the walkways after routine scheduled treatment was carried out before the snowfall.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel