The RMT has claimed that Network Rail’s ‘Modernising Maintenance’ programme and reductions in staffing were the real cause of major disruption at Manchester Piccadilly after 400m of overhead wires on the station throat had been damaged earlier this month.
Services at Piccadilly had to be suspended after a wire had broken on the morning of 16 April, and did not return in full until 11.00 on the 19th, after engineers had worked day and night to repair the damage.
Network Rail said: ‘It became clear that the problems were much more extensive than first thought, including damaged insulators that required specialist equipment to replace.’
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said: ‘Passengers in Manchester are paying the price for reckless cuts to maintenance staffing. Network Rail’s so-called Modernising Maintenance programme has hollowed out fault response teams, leaving the railway unable to cope when things go wrong.
‘Our members have been warning for some time that these cuts would lead to exactly this kind of chaos, with staff stretched too thin and unable to respond quickly to faults. Network Rail really needs to urgently reverse these damaging cuts, restore proper staffing levels and rebuild the maintenance capacity needed to keep the railway moving.’
Network Rail told Railnews: ‘The damage to overhead lines which caused significant disruption in Manchester was deeply frustrating and we are determined to learn from it to minimise the chances of it happening again.
‘We will be commissioning an independent industry review of the asset management and maintenance of infrastructure on the approach to Manchester Piccadilly.
‘This will inform both our immediate intervention opportunities as well as plans for future track and infrastructure renewals.’
What do you think? Click here to let us know.