February 2025
Integrated National Transport Strategy – Response from the RMT About the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT)
RMT is Britain’s largest specialist transport union and has more than 80,000 members from almost every sector of the transport industry including in passenger rail services and infrastructure, rail freight, London transport and metro services, buses and ferries. RMT is by some distance the largest rail union and represents all grades of rail workers.
An Integrated National Transport Strategy – Listening to what transport workers say It is abundantly clear that our public transport networks are highly fragmented, both within and between sectors and this fragmentation causes significant challenges for staff and passengers and does not provide value for money for taxpayers. One of the Government’s key goals for the creation of Great British Railways (GBR) is to tackle the fragmentation that has arisen as a result of privatisation, and RMT fully supports the creation of a GBR as a unified, vertically integrated organisation in public ownership. The Government’s Bus Services (No2) Bill which is currently making its way through parliament seeks to give local authorities greater control over their local bus services, including through reversing the ban on publicly owned bus companies. It is vital that these reforms also lead to greater integration between different modes of public transport. Listening to and understanding the views of the frontline workers who keep our public transport systems running on a daily basis and who have experienced the challenges of fragmentation first hand will be pivotal to the success of the Government’s Integrated National Transport Strategy. We note that the call for evidence includes questions for frontline transport workers, however, it is of significant concern that trade unions, as the organisations that represent transport workers are completely missing from the call for ideas. Trade unions are not listed amongst the organisations in the call for evidence, nor was there any reference to consultation with trade unions in the Government’s recent announcement of its regional tour.1 RMT wants to work collaboratively with the Government to ensure that the views of 1
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-minister-kicks-off-regional-tour-with-communities-to-shape-the-future-ofintegrated-transport#:~:text=The%20regional%20transport%20roadshows%20will,will%20be%20published%20this%20year.