Trevelyan: Rail strikes stopping children getting to school are ‘not acceptable’

Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan has said it is “not acceptable” to stop children getting to school or commuters getting to work during rail strikes.

She told MPs that the Government will introduce legislation on minimum service levels during industrial action so passengers can “continue to get about”.

Ms Trevelyan made the comments hours after the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) announced that its members at Network Rail will stage fresh strikes in a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.

The walkouts on November 3, 5 and 7 are expected to cause a week of disruption to services.

Ms Trevelyan told the Transport Select Committee: “I will be disappointed if we continue to see that sort of industrial action.

“Bringing in the MSL (minimum service levels) legislation will be a tool available if there is total inability to move forwards between the various parties, to ensure, as it says on the tin, minimum service levels, so that the passenger, the customer, can continue to get about.

“It is not acceptable to stop children getting to education, people getting to work.

“All of those areas, draining the economy of its potential because of the need for rail to move people around, is not acceptable.

“So we need to find a compromise and balanced solution which everyone can live with so that we can get on with exactly the point on growing that revenue again.”

The aim of MSL laws is to ensure that transport services, including rail, London Underground and buses, cannot be completely shut down when workers go on strike.

The Government said it expects that legislation will come into force in 2023.

Unions have criticised the policy, with many believing it will be unworkable.