On the first day of Mick Lynch’s catastrophic rail strikes, the websites of National Rail, TfL, and Chiltern Railways all collapsed as anxious commuters sought to go to work.
Passengers who attempted to use all three sites to find out whether trains are operating were greeted with the message ‘500 Internal Server Error.’
The outage, which has affected hundreds of websites, is said to have been caused by a flare-up at content delivery network Cloudflare. To guard against attacks and transmit material from the cloud as safely and fast as possible, websites employ content delivery networks.
Around 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 13 train operators are staging the largest walkouts in 30 years, with only a fifth of trains operating and half of routes stopped.
The majority of services are limited to main lines, and even those are only available between 7.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m.
Normally crowded stations, such as London Euston, are mostly desolate today, with the exception of picket lines by union members early in the morning, when services are delayed until 7.30 a.m. Only a fifth of the trains are operating, half of the lines are stopped, and the network will end at 6.30 p.m.
London Underground services are also suspended on the vast majority of lines today due to a walk out by workers.
At Birmingham New Street station, a few would-be passengers and commuters were trying to work out their travel plans, gazing at timetables on their phones and the departures board on the main concourse.
Rail barons have forced Britain into a £1billion ‘lockdown’ after last-ditch talks to avert the biggest strikes in a generation failed yesterday.
The hardline RMT union has been accused of ‘punishing millions of innocent people’ by continuing with the walkouts despite a salary raise offer of at least 3% for workers – the same amount provided to NHS workers during the Covid-19 crisis last year.
The train sector will also lose £150 million at a time when passenger numbers have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Yesterday, there was a glimmer of optimism for a settlement in the dispute over employment and wages as sources close to the talks stated the RMT had made’some movement’ and that’small steps of development’ were being made.
However, during a news conference outside the RMT’s offices in London yesterday, the union’s boss, Lynch, announced that walkouts will take place today, Thursday, and Saturday.
The RMT was formally given a 2% pay increase with “no strings attached” and a further 1% pay increase later in the year if certain efficiency benchmarks were fulfilled by Network Rail.
The increase might have been as high as 5% if the union had agreed to embrace greater modernization of working procedures, such as the increased use of technology to identify possible network issues.
Last night, intense discussions continued, with one insider suggesting that a solution to avoid walkouts on Thursday and Saturday was still feasible.
‘It ain’t over till the fat woman sings,’ they added. They wouldn’t be returning, especially at this late hour, if we weren’t getting closer, which we are – it’s just not enough on either side to prevent the attacks at this time.’
The RMT is said to be seeking a wage raise of at least 7%. It also wants an assurance that there would be no forced redundancies.
Mr Lynch would not rule out strikes lasting longer than the epic 18-month Southern rail strike.
It raises the prospect of similar walkouts going on for months.
He said: ‘It will go on until somebody offers us a deal that we can accept and we can put to our members and they vote for it in a referendum.’
He dodged the question of whether it was fair for taxpayers to stump up the extra cash to fund the union’s pay demands.
He added: ‘Faced with such an aggressive agenda of cuts to jobs, conditions, pay and pensions, the RMT has no choice but to defend our members industrially to stop this race to the bottom.
‘The strikes on Network Rail, the train operators and London Underground will go ahead, and we again call on our members to stand firm, support the action, mount the pickets and demonstrate their willingness to fight for workplace justice.’
But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hit back, saying: ‘By carrying out this action, the RMT is punishing millions of innocent people, instead of calmly discussing the sensible and necessary reforms we need to make in order to protect our rail network.’
He added: ‘We are now on the cusp of major disruption which will cause misery for people right across the country.
‘Many people who do not get paid if they can’t get to work face losing money at a time they simply can’t afford to. Children sitting exams will face the extra distraction of changing their travel plans.
‘And vulnerable people trying to attend long-awaited hospital appointments may have no choice but to cancel.’
After bailing out the sector for £16 billion during the epidemic – the equivalent of £600 per home – ministers expect the business to save roughly £2 billion.
They also point out that train workers earn a median pay of £44,000, which is higher than the national average.
The strikes ‘could not have come at a worse moment,’ according to business leaders, for companies expecting for a summer boost after the Covid devastation.
‘The train and Tube strikes will impose another lockdown on the West End at a time when central London’s economy needs all the help it can get,’ said Ros Morgan, chief executive of the Heart of London Business Alliance, which represents over 600 firms in the capital’s West End.
As pubs, bars, and restaurants, as well as other leisure and tourism activities like as theatres, have been damaged, trade organisation UKHospitality has warned that the cost to the sector might reach £1 billion this week alone.
‘For a shattered hotel industry beginning its timid post-pandemic recovery, the planned strike action couldn’t come at a worse moment, and may deal a deadly financial blow to those firms already battling to survive,’ said its manager, Kate Nicholls.
Emma McClarkin, the CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association, said the strikes are a “real danger” to the business, since they might prevent employees from going to work and customers from getting to venues.
Greater Manchester’s night-time economy adviser, Sacha Lord, said the strikes will have a ‘drastic impact’ on businesses relying on footfall from local workplaces.
Unions reacted with fury to reports Labour has banned its frontbenchers from picket lines, in a memo leaked to Politics Home.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, told the PA news agency: ‘The Labour Party was founded by the trade unions and we expect Labour MPs to defend workers, by words and by actions.’
Pupils and parents are being urged to make an alternative plan for getting to school for A-level and GCSE exams. Motorists were warned to expect a surge in traffic as train passengers switch to road transport. The AA predicted that the worst affected roads are likely to be main motorway arteries, as well as rural and suburban areas.
About half of Great Western Railway’s trains due to serve Castle Cary in Somerset, carrying revellers to the Glastonbury Festival between Wednesday and Friday, are cancelled.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to say ahead of a Cabinet meeting that unions are ‘harming the very people they claim to be helping’.
He is set to accuse unions of ‘driving away commuters who ultimately support the jobs of rail workers’, while also hitting businesses across the country.
He will say: ‘Too high demands on pay will also make it incredibly difficult to bring to an end the current challenges facing families around the world with rising costs of living. Now is the time to come to a sensible compromise for the good of the British people and the rail workforce.’
Mr Lynch said Network Rail had offered a 2% pay rise with the possibility of a further 1% later dependent on efficiency savings.
He told BBC’s Newsnight that Network Rail had ‘escalated’ the dispute during Monday’s talks, saying: ‘They have issued me a letter saying that there are going to be redundancies starting from July 1. So rather than trying to come to an agreement in this dispute, they’ve escalated it by giving us formal notice of redundancy amongst our Network Rail members.’
He warned the dispute could continue for months, adding: ‘It is clear that the Tory Government, after slashing £4bn of funding from National Rail and Transport for London, has now actively prevented a settlement to this dispute.
‘The rail companies have now proposed pay rates that are massively under the relevant rates of inflation, coming on top of the pay freezes of the past few years.
‘At the behest of the Government, companies are also seeking to implement thousands of job cuts and have failed to give any guarantee against compulsory redundancies.’
The Department for Transport disputed Mr Lynch’s clams, adding that it has cost taxpayers about £600 per household to keep the railway running during the pandemic.