Strikes, strikes, strikes (try saying that one fast). You’d think that at a time when redundancy is the order of the day the rail unions would be doing all they could to keep their members’ jobs safe.

But no. Drivers on East Midlands Trains are striking for six days, on three consecutive Fridays and Mondays, making for some nice long summer weekends (funny how it never seems to happen in the winter) because the above inflation pay rise they were offered wasn’t good enough.

Did you get that? Above inflation.

How can that not be good enough?

And on my line, too, there are eight days of strikes on the cards for National Express. Everything went suspiciously quiet for a while, but today the rail company put up a page on its site explaining that it still looked likely to happen, and that if it did then they ‘would not expect to be able to run any train services’.

Again, an above inflation pay offer was rejected and, to seal the deal, the unions demanded better conditions, too.

A statement on one of the union sites succinctly summed up its position: ‘This company [National Express] has made half a billion in profits out of our members over the past decade, it’s a scandal that they are offering their staff peanuts in return.’

The point they seem to be missing is that pay rises have to be met by us, the travelling public, many of whom have had their pay frozen this year. And the effects of strikes, too, are felt by… yes, us, the travelling public, so we lose either way.

As such, the best the travelling public can hope for is that the train operators call the unions’ bluff and refuse to give in. I’ll happily put up with the disruption until the union members realise that there is another way.

National Express is a publicly-listed company and, as such, the workers can buy some of the stock and share in the benefits of the company that has made half a billion in profits out of the union members’ hard work. Perhaps then they’d be happy to moderate the pay rises and avoid the kind of strike action that could lead to financial penalties that will impact their dividend payouts.

Oh, and yes, the company may have made a profit out of its workers, but those workers have also made a profit out of selling their labour to the company. You don’t see the company going on strike on account of the profits that its workers have made by selling their time and skills.

Ever wondered why rail improvements never seem to run to time? Perhaps it’s Network Rail’s maths, or the lengths to which it expects its workers to go.

Network Rail oversees the UK’s network and stations, and its latest press release, published today, outlines the work it plan to complete over the four day Easter break.

It’s a long and extensive programme, and involves track replacements at Shenfield, overhead line replacements at Liverpool Street and Bethnal Green and timetable changes for services to Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Clacton, Southend, Shenfield and a whole host of other stations, all of which could (perhaps) over-run and impact on my journey to work the first day back.

It happened over Christmas, and the first day back was actually spent working from home. Major upset, big enquiries, compensation paid, fines of £14m levied. Of course, they won’t want to have that happen again.

So it’s good to read Iain Coucher, Network Rail’s chief exec assuring us all that there will be no repeat:

Following the New Year, we have listened to passengers and those who represent them and now our planning and preparation is more robust than ever. Each project is an immense engineering challenge in its own right, and Network Rail is absolutely determined to deliver a safe and reliable railway back to passengers and freight users at the promised time.

But if they’re so determined to get it right this time around you have to ask why they’re not throwing more resources at the problem. In the same release he outlined the level of work required and the number of people making it happen:

In just four days over Easter Network Rail will deliver 300,000 hours of improvement work across the country. Around 6,000 engineers will be working day and night to meet demands for a better railway from the travelling public.

Perhaps Network Rail has forgotten to mention some extra workers somewhere, but 300,000 hours split between 6,000 engineers over four days means each one will be working 12.5 hours a day, every day. Hardly likely, is it, unless they’re hiring some kind of bionic workforce.

It’s also contrary to the EU Working Time Directive, which states that nobody should work more than 48 hours in any 7 day period. This workload equates to 50 hours per engineer in the space of just four days.

I really hope it’s just a poorly-written release, and one that unfairly ignores all the back-room staff supporting the men and women with hammers bashing the track. Unless, of course, they’re called engineers, too. Not all engineers have to engage in manual labour, after all.

Either way, I’d be very impressed if it all gets done on time. Not to say a little surprised.

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