OREANDA-NEWS. Once again the RMT leadership have failed to get their members to accept a pay offer from Network Rail that they had agreed to in discussions with ACAS.

Mark Carne, Chief Executive said:

“Our people know that there are ways to improve the way work is done.  I have always said that if we work together to realise these benefits there is the possibility to increase pay.  We are therefore ready to get around the table with whoever the RMT consider can speak on behalf of their members.  It is clearly unacceptable for the RMT to massively disrupt the travelling public with strike action when we are ready to continue talks.” 

Network Rail will now restart its contingency planning with the train operators, but if a national rail strike goes ahead, rail services will be severely affected. 

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing  £38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.