Rail Minister says there is a deal to be done with unions

Rail Minister Kevin Foster believes there is a deal to be done with the rail unions.

Speaking at the Rail Forum Annual Conference in Birmingham on 11 October, the minister said: “We believe there’s a positive future for our railways. We can address some of the longstanding issues around working practices. 

“We’re seeing great growth on leisure, particularly on a Sunday, which means we are going to have to move away from the 1919 era agreement on voluntary working on a Sunday.”

He continued: “I think there is a deal to be done because with the amount of investments going into the railway there are more jobs coming in the future.”

The minister then highlighted the HS2: “Look at Curzon Street and, at the end of the day, there will be RMT members working on that railway when it opens up, so, there is a huge benefit coming for the workforce as well as for us if we can get some of these issues sorted out.

“There is sustainable railway that is cost effective and is expanding significantly in the future.”

He highlighted the Restoring Your Railway campaign, which seeks to restore services to lines and stations closed during the steam era, and said: “the more we can make services reliable, the more we know if it’s a leisure destination that Sunday weekend services will work and not rely on volunteers, the more confident we can be in putting ahead and pushing ahead with funding some of those some of those schemes, then for me there’s a real reward there for all of us. 

“It’s ultimately the employers who the unions need to be talking to but both myself and the Secretary of State believe that there is a deal to be done.”

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