Statement about RMT action on Wednesday 27 December 2017

Published on: Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Last updated: Wednesday, 6 December 2023

Richard Dean, Train Service Delivery Director, Greater Anglia said:

“We are obviously disappointed with the announcement today. We are hoping to resolve this dispute through discussions with RMT union officials. Prior to today’s announcement, we had arranged talks with the RMT for tomorrow. We will be going ahead with those talks as planned.

There is already a revised Christmas service in place on Wednesday 27 December, along with alterations due to engineering works. We will be aiming to run that revised service, but will confirm full details nearer the time. Customers are advised to check before they travel using the Greater Anglia website or app.

“We value our conductors highly. We have guaranteed their jobs until the end of the franchise in October 2025. In fact, we will be recruiting additional conductors, as we are replacing all of our trains with brand new trains from 2019, which will enable us to run more services.”

For info:

We are replacing all of our trains with brand new trains, during 2019/20. These will be fitted with the latest modern technology, allowing drivers to open and close doors, as endorsed by two safety reports from two independent organisations. We believe this approach would improve both safety and punctuality, as well as freeing up conductors for more customer service duties.

We would like our conductors to be able to spend more time looking after customers, providing information, help and assistance – a role we know they do well from the praise we receive about them from our customers.

We have trained additional people as conductors, to enable us to run a full service in the event of industrial action taking place.

60% of our services do not have conductors.

On Wednesday 27 December there will be bus replacement service from Ingatestone and Billericay due to Network Rail engineering works between Shenfield and London Liverpool Street.