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Trains Cancelled After Union Tells Drivers Not to Walk on Snow

by Will Jones
7 January 2025 9:00 AM

Train services were cancelled over the weekend after the trade union Aslef told drivers – who’ve recently been given a bumper 15% pay rise by Labour – not to walk on snow, calling it “basic safety stuff”. The Telegraph has the story.

Avanti West Coast services between Liverpool and London did not run for several hours on Sunday morning after members of the Aslef trade union refused to walk to their trains.

The drivers were among those given a 15% pay rise by the Government last summer, sending their salaries soaring to just under £70,000 a year.

Ten trains were prevented from leaving the depot on time, leading to about 14 services being cancelled, according to a Telegraph analysis of Network Rail data. This is likely to have resulted in thousands of passengers having their journeys disrupted and delayed, leaving them in line for Delay Repay compensation. …

Photographs of the Liverpool Edge Hill depot, taken in the small hours of Sunday morning, show about two inches of snow on rails, electrical cables and other equipment. …

Health and safety representatives from Aslef told drivers not to turn up at the depot until the snow was cleared because the site was unsafe to walk around, a railway insider claimed.

The insider said: “Edge Hill depot [was] not gritted last night. All walkways covered in snow/ice and therefore no trains are able to leave as there’s no safe walking routes for drivers.”

An Aslef spokesman said: “The walkways were covered in snow and ice, making them unusable. Once they had been cleared, the drivers could access their trains and did so. This is basic safety stuff.”

The spokesman dismissed suggestions that health and safety representatives had been “over-reaching” and instead claimed Avanti was to blame.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Health and safetyLabourSafetyismSnowTrade UnionsTrains

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40 Comments
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mrbu
mrbu
4 months ago

If the unions said it was unsafe to get to the trains until the snow had been cleared, how come it was safe for other workers to get there and clear the snow? If the snow clearance workers had special footwear, enabling them to walk safely on the snow, couldn’t the drivers be provided with same? Or is it just that the train drivers’ unions support the workshy and overpaid? Perish the thought.

28
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

How did the drivers get to the depot? If they should not walk on snow they should not walk on snow anywhere.

So if that is the case for train drivers it means no one should go anywhere when there is snow.

I’ll bet they all managed to get down the pub despite the snow or to the supermarket and other shops.

6
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago

Whew! Thank goodness for global boiling! At least there won’t be any snow to stop the drivers getting to the trains. I wonder what the maximum temperature is before it’s not safe for them to walk to their trains.

Also, isn’t it just as well that everyone will still have their personal transport available to them?

16
0
mrbu
mrbu
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

I’m waiting for some climate zealot to be given airtime on some major TV channel to explain how the normal wintry weather we’re currently experiencing is a signal that climate change is leading to more and more extreme and disruptive weather events.

19
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

That’s an absolute certainty.

5
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

Jeremy Vine….”Is climate change to blame for the floods”. Didn’t take them long.

4
0
David101
David101
4 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

Yes, no, maybe, possibly? Who cares, there’s about as much you can do about climate change as you can do to alter the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.

0
0
RW
RW
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

Happened in Germany one or two years ago.

2
0
JXB
JXB
4 months ago
Reply to  mrbu

No longer climate change, it’s climate disruption, emergency, crisis* – select as appropriate for the occasion.

6
0
RW
RW
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

I fear you’re being prophetic here. Unionized staff refusing to work during so-called heat waves (or, for that matter, whenever the Met office has issued a weather warning) because of concerns about safe tea can’t be too far off.

Last edited 4 months ago by RW
4
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JohnK
JohnK
4 months ago

Still industrial unrest at Avanti, by the look of it.

3
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soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago
Reply to  JohnK

Circular firing squad.

3
0
stewart
stewart
4 months ago

Not a specific union problem. It’s a society wide problem.

“Safety” has become the highest value in our society to be pursued at any cost under the mantra of “better safe than sorry”.

Anyone who fails to deliver “safety” is hounded down and destroyed, so of course nobody wants to take even the most minuscule risk for anything.

That’s the society we have now, whether we like it or not.

13
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soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Without the union backing I think drivers that refused to walk over two inches of snow would find themselves replaced by more willing employees.

7
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Tylney
Tylney
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Good to see that the Union has such concern about the safety of its comfort-stricken Members. But in fact, there was no need for them to take the hazardous walk to the front of their trains anyway. After all, if it was too dangerous for their Members to venture out, it must surely also have been equally dangerous for their would-be passengers to risk the same hazardous walk to the trains. So there was in fact no need for the drivers to risk life and limb in the first place. Clearly, we should be thanking the Union for protecting the travelling public from their own folly – after all, this is supposed to be a society that values equality above all else.

5
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David101
David101
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

On the face of it, safety appears to have been bestowed the highest value, but not as far as your average citizen is concerned; most people I’ve ever talked to lament the fact we’ve become so risk-averse. Over-zealous safety regulations are simply an idea that’ been sold to us, many of which are triggered by one-off incidents that made headlines, coupled with finding market niches to fill.

All of us get a little nostalgic when we think of the good-old-days when kids could climb trees and play conkers in school without safety goggles… Nobody batted an eyelid about me pulling off death-defying BMX stunts with no helmet on!

5
0
JXB
JXB
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Health & Safety = Shirkers’ Charter.

4
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
4 months ago
Reply to  stewart

Skating is a passion of mine which I try to do as often as possible. Putting slidy things on your feet in a crowded space is obviously inherently hazardous, and the biggest hazards are people who overestimate their ability – which can be beginners or experienced skaters – and who don’t show consideration for others. But rinks are full of bullshit lists of rules as long as your arm of things you can and can’t do, most of which are irrelevant or only applicable some of the time (for example if there is nobody anywhere near you then you can skate in the “wrong” direction for a time without causing anyone else a problem. Some rinks simply don’t bother enforcing any of these rules and instead use discretion to occasionally intervene when complete tools make a nuisance of themselves, other rinks enforce the letter but not the spirit of the law and make you feel like a walking hazard rather than a valued customer. I wish I were rich enough to buy my own rink! Actually most skaters don’t care much about safety either (why would you go if you did) but clearly the loudest ones have got their way so everyone else has to suffer.

3
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Purpleone
Purpleone
4 months ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

As with most of this BS – follow the money, or in this case, the lawyers. Most people are more than capable of making a reasoned risk judgement call and do it hundreds of times a day

2
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
4 months ago
Reply to  Purpleone

Absolutely. Head office tells them they have to have these stupid rules. The frontline staff with a bit of sense (or just laziness) simply ignore them, then there are the few who have to spoil it for everyone by being officious. I’ve argued until I am blue in the face and it does no good. Once it goes up to management they back their staff rather than just having a quiet word with all concerned because they are afraid they will get in trouble if it comes out they are ignoring the rules.

4
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
4 months ago

The Rail Service is in Disarray without snow but HR2 is coming along nicely 🤦🏼‍♂️😵‍💫🤯

3
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
4 months ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

HR2? Is that the sequel to ‘HR. The verbal warning’?

4
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  soundofreason

I always prefer H2S given the whole project stinks to high heaven.

3
0
zebedee
zebedee
4 months ago

Simple. Just upgrade the trains with electronic systems so that you can shunt them from the sidings to the stations.

5
0
Gezza England
Gezza England
4 months ago
Reply to  zebedee

And then do the whole journey and make all the drivers redundant.

4
0
Art Simtotic
Art Simtotic
4 months ago

Try that one on with your commanding officer in a war zone and say hello to the firing squad.

Meanwhile over in Eastern Siberia, four engineers keep the village heating system going 24/7 in temperatures down to minus 60:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZebLi8VsQ&list=WL&index=5

5
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
4 months ago

All this crazy stuff comes from across the pond. Was thinking of clearing snow at bottom of drive so when I pull back on I don’t slide on the ice if it freezes over, then thought again because if someone slips, there is blame and a claim. So if they slip if I haven’t done anything, which will make slipping more likely, they only have themselves to blame. Annoying though if anyone has experience of reversing up a tight driveway in the ice, especially when a snow shovel is the answer and I have one FFS.

2
0
zebedee
zebedee
4 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

It’s the law in Germany and New York to clear the pavement. I clear mine, if someone slips then they had the option of walking on the road.

2
0
mrbu
mrbu
4 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

I looked into this a while back. There is no legal liability if you clear the pavement outside your property and someone slips on the section you’ve cleared. So you can do your bit for the community with a clear conscience.

3
0
RW
RW
4 months ago

This is surely extensible as the underlying problem is that walking is generally not safe due to gravity which accelerates everything downwards at 9.81m/s². Snow wouldn’t be a problem without that as people could just float over it. Hence, it would only be logical when Aslef drivers would generally refuse to walk when being paid to. They might slip and fall and seriously, possibly even lethally, hurt themselves otherwise. Basic safety stuff, really, what doesn’t get up cannot fall down. Upright movement also leads to an faster heart rate which increases the risk of heart failure due to stress. It’s probably best for unionized workers to remain in bed all day on all work days. Who knows what avoidable mishaps might befall them otherwise.

Last edited 4 months ago by RW
7
0
David101
David101
4 months ago

All this after a 15% pay rise! And what about the other half on minimum wage who have to cross a bit of snow to get to work? Do they all get to not work?

And ironically, it’s apparently OK for the minimum-wage street cleaners or manual workers to walk over the snow/ice while clearing it!

7
0
Climan
Climan
4 months ago

Private Sector: customer serving.
Public Sector: self serving.

3
0
RW
RW
4 months ago
Reply to  Climan

This is private sector (or rather, privatized sector).

1
0
Climan
Climan
4 months ago
Reply to  RW

Yes, but I would call it Mickey Mouse privatization, the old British Rail ethos persists.

1
0
JXB
JXB
4 months ago

Wrong kind of snow again.

5
0
NeilParkin
NeilParkin
4 months ago

Couldn’t they get their butlers to clear it for them..?

3
0
elsw0rj
elsw0rj
4 months ago

Do train drivers require someone to clear their own driveways of snow before they walk out of their front door?

3
0
Rusty123
Rusty123
4 months ago

Shows just how “entitled” this group of people really think they are, wonder how they’d feel if the rest of society said “ooh no its too cold/slippy/windy, hot or uncomfortable to get to my actual job”, pathetic.

1
0
Kornea112
Kornea112
4 months ago

I have a ten year old that would have gladly held train operators hands and helped them get to their trains.

0
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
4 months ago
Reply to  Kornea112

They aren’t allowed to hold childrens’ hands.

Anyone who coaches sport knows that touching children is out of bounds except when the minimum necessary to coach a particular skill and provided it is out in the open with at least another independent adult present.

So if you coach sport or teach in other ways for your own safety avoid as far as humanly possible all physical contact with the children being coached, taught etc. Or else you can risk your entire world being destroyed with a single complaint.

So one must ask the question, how is it Pakistani Muslim rape gangs have been doing what they have been doing for decades when we have such strict rules on adult/child contact in sport, teaching and so many other areas.

Well done the loony left, wokism and DEIers for making the world completely barmy,

0
0

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