UK ministers have demanded Transport for London pushes ahead with work to introduce driverless trains on the London Underground as part of a £1bn rescue package announced on Monday.
The Department for Transport will run a joint programme with TfL to explore the business case for fully automated trains on the Piccadilly and Waterloo and City lines, but transport unions immediately warned of industrial action in response.
Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, said TfL was “being forced” to undertake the preparatory work, and promised to reject any future demand to implement driverless trains.
“It would cost billions of pounds and would be a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money at this critical time for our country,” Khan said.
Under the proposed model, driverless trains, which run through tunnels and stop at signals and stations automatically, would still carry a staff member on board for safety.
Several Tube lines already run largely automated services, with drivers controlling the doors and on hand in case of equipment failures or emergencies.
Completely removing drivers could significantly cut staffing costs in the long-run. The technology has the potential “to offer a more punctual, reliable, customer-responsive and safer service that is less susceptible to human error”, the transport department said.
Unions have fiercely resisted the idea though, arguing that it would be costly, unnecessary and unsafe.
“Bitter and protracted industrial disputes are an inevitable consequence of the government’s decision to target London Underground workers,” said Finn Brennan, train drivers’ union Aslef’s organiser on the Underground.
Boris Johnson, prime minister, was an enthusiastic proponent of driverless trains when he was London mayor, a period that was punctuated by disputes with the unions. In 2012, Johnson predicted driverless systems would be in use within a decade.
Within London, the driverless model is already in operation on the Docklands Light Railway, a lower-speed light rail system that runs services across the east of the city.
But executing driverless service on tube lines would be a significantly tougher challenge. With the exception of the Waterloo and City line, which only runs between two stations, Tube lines are larger and more complex than the DLR, and in places share tracks with other rail services.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of transport union RMT, said driverless trains are “unwanted, unaffordable and unsafe”.
The agreement to work on driverless trains came as part of a wider £1.1bn government funding package, which also required TfL to find £300m in new savings or income in its current financial year, review its pension scheme and identify between £500m and £1bn a year of new annual income-raising measures from 2023.
“This is a disgraceful stitch up of a deal and it will be resisted . . . through London wide industrial action if necessary,” Lynch said.
Khan said the overall agreement, which runs until December, was a “sticking plaster” and that he was hopeful of agreeing a longer-term funding deal with ministers.
“I have tried to build bridges with the government as this is in the best interest of Londoners and our businesses, but I want to be honest with Londoners: this is not the deal we wanted,” he said.
Grant Shapps, transport secretary, said the government had insisted on efficiencies “to be fair to taxpayers across the UK”. The government has ploughed in more than £4bn to keep London’s transport system running during the pandemic as passenger numbers fell, around a third of the amount spent on the national rail network.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50LzlmYjUwMWNkLWFhYzMtNDY0ZS1hYzllLWY5MzEyZTIzNTY1NtIBAA?oc=5
2021-06-01 15:01:00Z
52781637262344
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar