THE DISPUTE over train staff on the restored Airdrie-Bathgate line has now involved the First Minister, Alex Salmond. The RMT union is calling for his intervention after more talks with ScotRail broke down amid accusations of a media leak. There has already been one strike over the issue and two more are planned, one on Monday and another on 13 March.

ScotRail wants to run trains on the restored link between Glasgow and Edinburgh with a driver and ticket examiner, but the RMT says the second member of staff should be a conductor/guard, who would control the doors and be responsible for the safety of the train. But the Class 334 units which will be used on the route only have door controls in the driver‘s cab, and ScotRail said the addition of controls for conductors would cost £1.4 million.

Talks had been taking place this week, but broke down yesterday (Wednesday), when the RMT alleged that details of an agreement for DOO between ScotRail and Transport Scotland had been drawn up last summer and had now been leaked to a newspaper. The RMT said: ‘The carefully placed leak raised serious questions about just who is calling the shots on the planned ripping up of existing agreements on passenger and staff safety, and just who RMT should be negotiating with.’  

However, a ScotRail source dismissed suggestions of a deliberate leak, pointing out that the information had been contained in briefings to several hundred conductors.

Meanwhile, the First Minister told the Scottish Parliament that discussions with Transport Scotland over the type of train crew to be employed on the Airdrie-Bathgate route had been held when the previous government was in power, but he did not indicate that he intended to change train crew policy.

A ScotRail spokesman said more than nine out of ten trains still ran when the first strike was staged on 20 February, and is predicting a similar situation next week.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow confirmed that Monday's strike would be going ahead, and claimed safety was at the heart of the disagreement. He said: “It is simply about the company compromising safety by axeing guards in order to save money.”

ScotRail has denied all along that safety is being compromised, pointing out that many trains in Strathclyde have their doors operated by the driver, on some lines for as long as 25 years. The company said savings would be made by the Scottish Government rather than FirstGroup, and that the money would be used to support other rail projects or services instead.

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