The RMT has called for members working for East Midlands Railway to strike on three consecutive Saturdays starting 1 August, escalating the RMT strike dates East Midlands Railway dispute over the rollout of new trains. The action comes as EMR and the RMT remain at odds over whether the Aurora Class 810 fleet can operate safely after system failures.
At the center of the dispute is the reset staff must perform after certain failures on the Aurora Class 810. An RMT statement said the process takes approximately 20 minutes and leaves the train with "no active safety systems".
Will Rogers and April
The dispute between EMR and the RMT began in April, and Will Rogers, EMR's now former managing director, resigned after a long stretch of services marked by back-to-back delays, timetable cuts, and general chaos. That left the operator managing the same rollout problems while the union kept pressing the safety case.
EMR says the trains meet "rigorous safety standards". The union's complaint is narrower than a general objection to new stock: it is about what happens when the train has to be reset, how long that takes, and whether service can continue with protection systems unavailable during the reset.
June and Bedford
The argument sharpened after the EMR train crash near Bedford in June, which involved an Aurora Class 810 train, killed one driver and injured 160 people. After that crash, EMR reduced inter-city services, warned passengers to make only "essential journeys", and opened first class to everyone because of a lack of space.
For passengers, the immediate effect is straightforward: the strike call covers three Saturdays beginning 1 August, while action short of strike is set to continue until further notice. That means weekend services remain exposed to further disruption while the dispute over the Aurora Class 810 rollout stays unresolved.
August and the
The main question left by the dispute is the one the union has put most sharply: which exact safety failures in the Aurora Class 810 trains led to the strike call. EMR has defended the fleet on safety grounds, but the RMT says the reset procedure leaves the train without active protection at the point staff have to recover it.
