ASHFORD BRANCH

Ashford Branch is the place to keep up with the latest information from the Ashford Branch of ASLEF and the Local representatives for the Train Drivers Depot at Ashford.
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17 years on - justice for ASLEF man convicted of manslaughter

12 Dec 2007

This morning the Court of Appeal quashed a train driver’s 17 year old conviction for manslaughter.

Bob Morgan - a train driver and ASLEF member - was convicted of two counts of manslaughter on 3 September 1990. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail, of which 12 were suspended, after he had admitted passing signal T168 while it was red – an event which contributed to the Purley train crash of 4 March 1989.

However, the original conviction had not taken into proper account the fact that this signal was dangerous. It had been passed at danger on four previous occasions - by different drivers – between 16 October 1984 and the Purley tragedy. This occurred again on 6 June 1991. Since the fault with the signalling has been remedied, no trains have passed T168 at danger. At the trial neither the prosecution nor the defence were aware that signal T168 was a ‘multi-SPAD’ (regularly passed at danger) signal – which is why Bob was advised to plead guilty. Today a signal with this history would be immediately assessed for risk and action would be taken to remedy the danger. This did not happen in 1989.

The accident happened at 13:39 when Bob Morgan’s train, travelling from Littlehampton to London, crashed into the back of a train travelling from Horsham to London. The Littlehampton train careered off the track, down the embankment into gardens below. 6 people died and 80 were injured.

ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman, said he was proud that the union had stood by Bob Morgan throughout his 17-year ordeal, and said, ‘ I am delighted that Bob has been vindicated. It was important not only for his peace of mind and reputation, but for all other UK train drivers. Today’s verdict should ensure that no train driver in the future will have to face such a terrible ordeal.

‘We have established that where safety issues – like badly sited and unsafe signals – contribute to an accident, the driver will never again be the single person held to account – which is what happened in Bob’s case.

‘Over a period of several years, drivers found it difficult to see the signal in question – a fact proven by the number of different drivers who passed it signalled at danger.

‘The tragedy for Bob and his family was that no one in management admitted their inefficiency or neglect. Instead, they slunk away, happy to leave Bob to carry the can for them all. There was no consideration of corporate responsibility – simply the desire by managers to escape blame by pointing a finger at an individual. Bob paid the price for the inefficiency and carelessness of layer upon layer of management.

‘We can never undo the harm Bob has endured - but we can admire the dignity with which he bore the burden of the last 17 years.’

MINISTER SHUNTS INTO DINER!

RUTH KELLY had only been transport
minister for a week when she had to
stand up in Parliament and pose as
the authoritative voice of UK rail. It is a
peculiar Parliamentary system – and
inevitably the wheels soon fell off.
Ms Kelly said that funding would be
made available to improve rail
services between Wolverhampton and Dartmouth. This was a
surprise because the rail line to Dartmouth is not in need of
improvement. It is in need of bringing back from the dead, as it was
chopped by Beeching in the 1960s. The station at Dartmouth is full,
not of passengers, but diners! It has been converted into a
restaurant and hotel – which in regatta week charges £950 for a
room overlooking the harbour.
Diners will still have to fork out for a taxi for some time to come!

ASLEF wins £1.4 million for members in six months - 12 Oct 2006

The train drivers' union ASLEF announced today that it has, in association with Thompsons Solicitors, secured a record £1,442,360 in compensation for its members in the first six months of this year.




The union's solicitors handled a total of 283 cases and were successful in over 60% of those concluded by the end of June.

'These figures show the effectiveness of our legal representation,' says general secretary Keith Norman. 'We can be proud that we have achieved just settlement for so many individual ASLEF members - and their families, as family members are also covered by the union's Personal Injury scheme.

'The main business of trade unions is, and always will be, collective representation - but our record on individual cases shows another benefit of belonging to a forward-looking and professional union like our own.'

Heathrow Express – deal in prospect - 1 Sep 2006

Talks between Heathrow Express and ASLEF over the pay deal which led to industrial action earlier this week have concluded with a draft agreement which will be put to the union’s executive committee early next week.


Stan Moran, the District Organiser who led the talks with members of the company council, says he is confident that the revised offer will be endorsed by the EC before being put to the members in a consultative ballot.
Details of the new proposals will be published as soon as the EC has examined the revised document.

SWT Strike action solid – but unnecessary, says GS - 29 Aug 2006

ASLEF News - Disbelief as Balfour Beatty challenges safety fine

Andy Reed, ASLEF’s National Organiser, said he was ‘almost speechless’ at the ‘outrage’ of Balfour Beatty seeking to challenge the fine imposed upon it as a result of the Hatfield disaster.


The company was in the High Court today arguing that the £10 million fine imposed on it after the Hatfield rail disaster was ‘excessive’.
‘Most astonishing of all was the company’s claim that the size of the fine had not taken into consideration the fact that it pleaded guilty at the original trial,’ Andy said. ‘These people want to be treated leniently because they admitted something that was painfully obvious to the rest of the county.
‘The only reason they pleaded guilty because they were guilty and they had no defence.
‘It is a mark of the company’s approach that the deaths and traumas it caused to rail workers and passengers are clearly secondary to financial considerations. Shame on them.’
The company's failure to abide by safety rules was described by an Old Bailey judge last October as ‘one of the worst examples of sustained industrial negligence in a high risk industry I have ever seen’.
The outcome of the appeal is expected by the end of the week.

Little sympathy from union as train horns ‘disturb the countryside’ - 31 Jan 2006

Franchise Announcement

Department for Transport announces Integrated Kent Franchise
The Department for Transport today announced that GoVia has been awarded the contract to run the Integrated Kent franchise (IKF) from 01 April 2006.

The IKF will include routes on the national rail network currently operated by South Eastern Trains throughout Kent, parts of East Sussex and South East London.

It will also include new high speed commuter services from St Pancras making use of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) from 2009.

The franchise contract is for 8 years with the final 2 years dependent on service performance achieving preset targets. The total subsidy for IKF is £585m over 8 years.

The franchise area has already benefited from almost £700 million in investment on new rolling stock and improved infrastructure. £250 million will be invested on new high speed trains for CTRL.

Given investment in the region the new operator will increase fares by 3% above inflation from January 2007 for five years to ensure there is a fair balance in cost between the taxpayer and fare paying passenger.

GoVia has also committed to:

Invest around £76 million in passenger and staff facilities.
Oversee the construction of two depots in East Kent to maintain the new and existing fleet of trains.
Improve performance with all day PPM train performance of 91.6% by March 2010 and 93.74% by March 2014.
Provide services which are additional to the base line DfT asked for in the ITT, including a strengthened half-hourly service to Beckenham Junction to Victoria, an additional peak service between Faversham and Cannon Street, two additional peak trains between Ashford and Charing Cross and some extra mid-evening and late evening trains to suburban and Kent destinations from London.
Run services to Dover if safety concerns at the Shakespeare Tunnel can be overcome.