January strikes threaten British rail

A British academic is warning that this week could be disastrous for rail freight in the UK. The first week in January is normally quiet on the British railway scene, but this one will be even quieter than usual. Commuter trains tend to be much quieter, and there is some planned reduction in freight operations, together with a handful of engineering works to tidy up. However, 2023 starts where 2022 left off, with the country in the grip of widespread industrial action keeping trains off the rails.

A series of national strikes have been organised by the trades unions RMT and Aslef, lasting throughout the first week of 2023. That means there will be precious few passenger services in England, with some disruption in Scotland and Wales too. Despite not being directly involved, freight services across Great Britain will be affected as staff walk out from Network Rail signalling and safety roles. That’s an issue taken up by Dr Kamran Mahroof, an academic with a track record in the railway industry.

Threatening momentum

Speaking to the regional daily newspaper, The Yorkshire Post, Doctor Kamran Mahroof from the university of Bradford University argues that the bitter round of rail strikes threatens the momentum behind rail freight. The professor in supply chain analytics at the Yorkshire university says that the overlooked and under-appreciated rail freight network is in danger of being the real casualty of the strikes.

The first week of January has been wiped out by strikes from two of the main rail unions. The largest union in the sector, the RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport), is staging its biggest action yet. Members at locations all over Great Britain are staging two 48-hour strikes on 3-4 January and 6-7 January. Coupling with those strikes, on Thursday, 5 January, the drivers’ union, Aslef, historically known as the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, will call out its members at fifteen passenger train operating companies based in England.

Rail freight as the preferred choice

Doctor Mahroof has voiced many of the fears being quietly expressed around the industry at large. “It helped keep food on our tables during the lockdown, it kept our NHS heroes protected with adequate PPE and prevented the country from coming to a standstill by delivering fuel supplies to our forecourts”, he said. “No, not a superhero with a cape, but our overlooked and under-appreciated rail freight network.”