I HAVE spent most of my adult life working in Britain’s railway industry. And I have spent all my adult life as a member of a trade union. I joined the railway as a guard in 1984 — joining the NUR which, a few years later, when it merged with the National Union of Seamen, became RMT — and then, when I became a train driver, driving freight and passenger services, I joined Aslef, the train drivers’ trade union.

As a railwayman — as a guard, as a driver, and as a union rep — I have always been acutely aware that the railway is a safety-critical industry.

Because when things go wrong — with the technology, the infrastructure, the signalling or the rolling stock — people get hurt and sometimes people die.

After the damning report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch was published into the Carmont crash at Stonehaven in Aberdeenshire on Wednesday August 12 2020, which pointed the finger at ScotRail, the train operator, and Network Rail for systemic failures, we said that this had to be “a watershed moment for rail safety” in this country.

Three people — driver Brett McCullough, 45, conductor Donald Dinnie, 58, and passenger Christopher Stuchbury, 62 — died when the 6.38am Aberdeen to Glasgow Queen Street service left the track after hitting a landslip. Six other people were seriously injured. That crash, which cast a long shadow over Britain’s railway industry, was caused by “debris washed onto the track following heavy rainfall.”

A tragic collision at Ladbroke Grove, two miles out from Paddington, on Tuesday October 5 1999, claimed the lives of 31 people, including the two drivers, Brian Cooper and Michael Hodder, and left 258 others injured in what was — and still is — one of the worst accidents on Britain’s railway network. It was a collision that was not only tragic but also avoidable — and it became a turning point in the way drivers were trained and managed in a newly privatised industry, among other things.

Many lessons were learned but also, it appears, some of the recommendations at the subsequent inquiry have been forgotten.

On Monday December 12 1988, signal failure caused by faulty wiring caused a crowded passenger train to crash into the rear of another service that had stopped at a signal at Clapham Junction, and subsequently hit an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. Thirty-six people lost their lives and 484 were injured.

Yes, Britain’s railway is a safety-critical industry and we have to ensure the safety of passengers and staff on our railway network every day of every week of every month of every year.

The track, and the infrastructure, have to be designed and maintained to withstand the consequences of climate change so that people can work and travel safely and with confidence. The rolling stock and the signalling have to be fit for purpose. And people have to be properly trained with safety always a priority.

The railways should, we think, be a public service, not an opportunity for private profit. And, under a Labour government, which has promised to bring our railways back into public ownership, that is what they will be.

Because where there is an opportunity — and often an incentive — for the privateers to make a private profit, then they will cut corners, take chances and put people’s lives at risk.

That is just one of the reasons — there are, of course, comrades, many more reasons — why we fought so hard against the Minimum Service Levels Bill when it was going through Parliament last year. As Lord John Hendy KC said in the House of Lords, “It’s impractical. And probably unworkable.”

The success of Aslef’s strikes over the last 21 months in bringing services to a standstill led the Tory government to bring in this law requiring a minimum service level in some sectors — including the railways — in an effort to neutralise trade unions and the bargaining power of workers in our fight for fair pay.

It was Tory spite at its worst because the train operating companies told the DfT that they didn’t want minimum service levels because they knew they wouldn’t work. A point we made, publicly and privately, to anyone who would listen.

A minimum service level on the railway would only result in a dangerous level of overcrowding because, when passengers know trains are running, they will try to get on them. Many commuter services run, during peak times, with 1,300 passengers on a 12-car train.

If all, or most, of those passengers try to get on a minimum service level service, then the overcrowding will put lives at risk. Not just on the train, but on the platform, because there will be fewer services to clear the stations.

That’s why the rail industry didn’t want minimum service levels and why the Railway Safety and Standards Board warned against their implementation.

That’s why we fought so hard, and, so far, so successfully, against the implementation of minimum service levels. Because we know they are not safe. We made the case, frankly and forthrightly, and, when one operator did say it intended to issue work notices to our members, for the day we were due to go on strike, we immediately put on another five days of industrial action. LNER saw sense and backed down.

Aslef has led the way on what the Morning Star, at a public meeting on Thursday March 7, called “defiance not compliance” — and many Labour Party and labour movement activists have praised us for taking the lead on this.

We did it for passengers, as well as for staff; we did it for everyone who works and who travels on Britain’s railways. Because we want to keep our railway safe.

Mick Whelan has spent 40 years on the railway, and 40 years as an active trade unionist. He was elected general secretary of Aslef in 2011, became chair of the Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation, now Labour Unions, in 2016, and in 2017 was elected to the Labour Party NEC.