Significant disruption across Scotland’s rail network has begun as workers at Network Rail take strike action this week.
Workers responsible for train lines and infrastructure across the UK walked out on Tuesday - with further action on Thursday and Saturday - as ScotRail was able to run services on just five routes on these days.
The rail operator will run two trains per hour on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High line, the Edinburgh-Bathgate line, the Glasgow to Hamilton/Larkhall line and the Glasgow to Lanark line.
One train an hour will run on the Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts service.
Services on the five lines will only operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm on the dates affected.
Passengers were warned last week by ScotRail to only travel on the limited services “if they really need to”.
Major disruption is expected across the UK as the RMT union takes industrial action over a pay dispute with Network Rail and some Department of Transport rail operating companies.
It is understood that staff at ScotRail will be expected to attend their usual place of work on the days strike action is planned.
The operator said employees will be “deployed for other duties”, including training and staff briefings, where appropriate.
Gordon Martin, RMT regional organiser for Scotland, said the strike is the last resort for members, and said the union is looking for a “meaningful offer” to resolve the dispute.
He told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “This is not the first option, this is the last resort for our members.
“It’s a fight that we didn’t want, this is a defensive action by this trade union, but it will be until we get a reasonable settlement and the members have made that abundantly clear to me and others.
“This is a defensive measure by our members in defence of their jobs, their terms and conditions and, I would argue, the safety of the rail industry.”
Scottish Conservative transport spokesman Graham Simpson said the RMT is “militant” and needs to get back around the negotiating table.
He told the Good Morning Scotland programme: “What the RMT has to do is stop being so militant, and get back around the table and get the country moving again.”
Simpson was asked why he called for Scottish Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth to get involved in the dispute between Aslef and ScotRail, but not her UK counterpart, Grant Shapps.
He said: “It’s different because it’s not just Network Rail, as I said earlier, there are 13 train companies involved, so it’s very, very complicated.”
Nick King, a spokesman for Network Rail in Scotland, said a modernised railway could improve its pay offer for staff by passing on savings.
He told Good Morning Scotland the strike could be resolved if the union moved its position on working practices and any reduction in staff would take place on a voluntary basis.
King said: “The dispute is not going to be solved through strike action. It’s not going to be solved on a picket line.
“It’s going to be solved by negotiations in a room, and negotiations have been taking place for 18 months now on this issue.
“We feel that there are clear ways in which we could modernise and change the way we currently operate and that would then enable us to free up savings that we could then use to fund a pay rise.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast there will be meetings of the Cobra emergency committee on the rail strikes this week.
He said he does not meet unions, as he described calls for him to join them round the negotiating table as a “stunt”.
Shapps went on: “I don’t typically meet with them because it’s a red herring, if I thought there was a one in a million chance it would make a slightest bit of difference, of course I would do so at the drop of the hat.”
Much of Britain will have no passenger trains for the entire day, including most of Scotland and Wales, the whole of Cornwall and Dorset, and places such as Chester, Hull, Lincoln and Worcester.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch warned that the dispute could continue for months, adding: “It is clear that the Tory Government, after slashing £4bn of funding from National Rail and Transport for London, has now actively prevented a settlement to this dispute.”
The Department for Transport disputed Lynch’s clams, adding that it has cost taxpayers about £600 per household to keep the railway running during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lynch also accused Shapps of “spouting nonsense” over plans to allow agency staff to step in for striking workers.
He criticised the proposed change in the law, which would allow flexible workers, including agency staff, to cover for those on strike.
Shapps said the legislation change could be introduced within months.
Lynch told the PA news agency: “Well, I don’t know how bringing in untrained, non-safety critical, inexperienced workers into a dangerous environment like the railway - with high speed trains, there are high voltage distribution systems, there are rules and regulations that have the power of statute - how that will help anyone, whether they are a passenger or a worker or manager or whatever?
“I don’t see how the use, the deployment of students or people who have got no work experience that are working for an agency will help anyone to resolve this situation, so as usual he’s just spouting nonsense given to him from some policy unit which doesn’t help to resolve the situations which are in front of us.”
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