Network Rail has denied sending Welsh staff to run English rail services during the strikes. The organisation was responding after Mark Drakeford said accused them of doing it during First Minister’s Questions on Tuesday, June 21.
Responding to Welsh Conservative Leader Andrew RT Davies' query on whether the First Minister supported the rail strikes, he said: "There are no strikes in Wales, there is no dispute between Transport for Wales and the trade union where I am responsible for these things."
The First Minister continued: "Let me explain to the leader of the opposition why trains aren’t running in Wales. It’s because his government has created a dispute with Network Rail, and Network Rail have removed some of the staff who could have been available to make trains run in Wales in order to keep trains running in England.
“I wonder if he supports that measure which was a decision of his government to deny you people in Wales the opportunity to travel where there is no dispute, by removing those workers to look after, which clearly are for them a higher priority than Welsh citizens will ever be.”
However, Network Rail has since responded to these claims, telling the BBC: "No Network Rail staff have been redeployed from Wales to England during this industrial action.
"We're continuing to work with our partners at Transport for Wales and other train operators to keep passengers moving where we can."
The Welsh Government subsequently issued a further statement saying that "contingent signallers", some of whom normally work in Wales, had been deployed in England.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Network Rail have prioritised deploying their contingent signallers, some of whom normally work in Wales, to keep lines in England running as part of their revised route strategy to deal with the dispute.”
Disruption to vast majority of rail routes in Wales is expected, with no services on Tuesday, June 21, Thursday, June 23 and Saturday, June 25 because of the walkout by members of the RMT union working for Network Rail. However, rail bosses say that services from Monday, June 20 will be affected because of the walkout and are asking people to only travel if essential.
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