Showing posts with label London Underground. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London Underground. Show all posts

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

New report: Urgent action required to tackle London’s dangerous air quality

From the Institution of Mechanical Engineering
 
London’s nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels similar to Shanghai and Beijing
 
Dangerous levels of pollution in the capital are identified in a new report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which calls for urgent action to prevent illness and death.
With NOx levels at Paddington station in breach of European limits regarding NO2 for outdoor air quality, the report calls on Government to work with Network Rail to deliver the complete electrification of the main rail lines between Britain’s principal cities and ports and in major urban rail networks. Currently up to 70% of trains passing through the station are powered by diesel engines that are exempt from regulations for modern diesel trains.
Other pollution hot spots include the Bakerloo and Victoria lines, which have the highest levels of airborne respirable dust levels. But currently the impact and level of poor air quality is not well understood, and the report calls for the introduction of a coherent national scheme to monitor emissions from different modes of transport so that informed targets can be set. 
London’s commuters are most at risk during the morning rush hour, with the concentration of pollutants 13% - 43% higher than during afternoon or evening peaks. Another of the report’s recommendations is that incentives should be introduced to encourage freight deliveries outside of peak hours.
Philippa Oldham, lead author of the report and Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said:
“London is currently ranked as 15th out of 36 major global cities in terms of overall air quality, lagging behind other European cities such as Berlin and Vienna. The capital needs to prioritise this issue and create a modern Clean Air Act that takes a holistic approach; it must not just target individual sectors, but encourage everyone to play a role in reducing emissions.”
The A breath of fresh air: new solutions to reducetransport emissions report recommends that Government and industry work together to:
1.     Introduce a national monitoring system, across the different types of transport, recording all types of pollution, to create a coherent picture against which national targets can be set.
2.     Develop incentives for cleaner technologies and encourage the phase-out of legacy vehicles with poor emissions record across the network (for example diesel cars and trains).
3.     Consider incentivising freight and logistic operators to make deliveries outside peak hours.
4.     Conduct a series of trials on existing diesel railway rolling stock, new bi-mode trains and in major stations, to understand the level and effect of exposure to pollutants has on commuters and railway workers.
5.     Conduct a series of trials to understand the impact on the individual of exposure to pollutants in overground and underground railway stations, ports, airports and bus stations.
6.     Create a positive and dynamic campaign that informs the public of the health benefits of switching to lower-emission modes of transport.
7.     Government to work with Network Rail to deliver the complete electrification of the main rail lines between Britain’s principal cities and ports and in major urban rail networks.
8.     Fund research through the Clean Air Fund and Innovate UK to create programmes to clean up various transport modes.

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Natalie Bennett's message of solidarity to tube and rail strikers

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Last year's strike notice

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett has expressed support for the rail and Tube strikes. The Rail and Maritime Transport union have begun a three-day walkout after a dispute with First Great Western over job cuts and safety, while around 2,000 London Underground workers are on strike today.

Bennett said:
“I stand in solidarity with the workers striking this week. These strikes are the last resort of workers seriously concerned over issues of safety, staffing and pay, and it is clear that employers in both cases have failed to provide the reasonable assurances that their employees have the right to ask for.
"In any significant change to services and the conditions of those who work on them - be it the night Tube or the new inner-city trains - the needs of those who will be staffing them must be a high priority, and workers forced to take industrial action to ensure that this is the case have my support.”

Monday, 7 January 2013

The human cost of out-sourcing: Justice for the 33

Some of the 33 sacked workers outside Wembley Central today

A demonstration was held today outside Wembley Central station for 33 agency workers employed by Railpeople who were given notice of the termination of their contracts just before Christmas. The agency deployed them in the Wembley Central Group on various duties for London Underground.  The workers had achieved  7 100% consecutive Customer Service marks during the Olympics and now their Olympic 'legacy' is loss of their jobs.

They were turned down for alternative permanent jobs with London Underground (doing the same kind of thing they were doing on short-term, zero hours, no pension contracts). Instead they employed people who hadn't doen the jobs before.  HT apparently told them that although they were good enough to do the jobs as agency staff they weren't good enough to work directly for London Underground.

When London Underground took control of the stations north of Queens Park in 2008 that the casualisation of the job, particularly the use of agency workers, lead to a dispute as a result of which LU assured the RMT that the use of agency staff would be temporary, lasting a maximum of six months. Some of the workers have been with Trainpeople agency for five years!

The RMT has taken up their case and are demanding that all LU trained station staff working for Trainpeople agency should be transferred over to LU without having to apply for the job,

Bob Crow of the RMT made an impassioned speech putting the sackings in the context of privatisation and austerity, Navin Shah AM  cited equality (all the 33 are members of ethnic minorities) as the big issue and promised to take the case up with London Underground, TfL and the Major, and Councillor Nana Asante from Harrow pledged her support.

However the speech that stayed with me was from one of the workers who spoke movingly about the real impact on her and the sense of bewilderment she felt.