It’s fitting that the Rolling Stones are scheduled to play in London in the middle of the largest national rail strike in three decades.is currently the anthem being sung by Britain’s rail union, Boris Johnson’s government and, increasingly, the commuters stuck in the middle.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union wants pay to keep up with inflation and workers to be protected from redundancy. Who doesn’t? But the demands are neither reasonable nor feasible in an industry that must adapt to both technological advances and changing consumer habits. Ask regular rail users about all this and they’ll give you an earful. Late or overcrowded trains and unreliable service had become a regular complaint for many. A lack of accountability and endless finger-pointing left problems to fester. The exception is where real competition prevailed and companies competed for the same track — such as the East Coast Main line, where passenger satisfaction has been high and services are more innovative.
It’s not clear, though, that the government is in a hurry. It has slow-walked negotiations. Johnson has always found having a bogeyman useful, whether it’s the EU opposing plans to change the Northern Ireland Protocol or lawyers blocking the deportation of refugees to Rwanda. It also puts the Labour Party in an awkward position and reminds voters how a Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher liberated Britain’s economy from a union chokehold in the 1980s.
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THERESE RAPHAEL: Unions out of step with the times amid UK rail strikeThe industry must adapt to technological advances and changing consumer habits
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