Fighting for our safety

The third one-day strike has drawn in strong support from the general public and the RMT union, which will be rallying in support of the dispute at 10.30am today at the Calton Road entrance to Edinburgh Waverley station.

The union also issued further warnings of potential safety breaches as services face a large number of people attending the Calcutta Cup international rugby fixture.

Two incidents on previous strike days, both involving untrained managers acting up as guards, have provoked particular safety fears.

The first was an incident at Glasgow Queen Street where the train doors were activated on the track side rather than the platform side and then the incident at Falkirk where doors were reportedly activated when the train was short of the platform.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Our members remain rock solid across Scotland in their continuing and determined action in defence of rail safety and the role of the guard.

"RMT is pleased that the continuing pressure from its members' action and the political and public campaigning has enabled us to secure talks with Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson next Thursday," Mr Crow added.

"We will be pressing the minister, as the leading political figure responsible for the new Airdie-Bathgate route, to make it clear to Scotrail that they must abide by existing agreements protecting rail safety and the crucial role of the guard."