Rail Freight Company Sheds Jobs

[Gavin-D]

Rail freight company EWS is to axe 530 jobs, rail union TSSA has been told The news came shortly before the administrator for Woolworths announced 450 job losses among the failed retailer's support staff. TSSA said Doncaster-based EWS blamed the recession for a drastic cut in goods moving by rail for the decision to cut its workforce by a tenth. TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty and RMT transport union leader Bob Crow called today for urgent talks with Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon to protect the long-term future of rail freight. Mr Doherty said: "EWS has told us that its work has fallen off the cliff in recent weeks. Virtually all steel and car transporting has come to a near standstill."We need to talk to Geoff Hoon urgently if we are to ensure that our freight industry survives this recession. The Government must act sooner rather than later."The job losses at EWS follow recent announcements by transport giants National Express and Stagecoach that they will cut jobs because of falling demand.

Taken From Sky News

[model321]

Oh dear, lets just hope that Railfreight on britains railways gets a boost and more different types of freight are hauled in the future. If more lines are re-opened for freight traffic, then this would create jobs, instead of making everyone reduntant.

Matt C

[danielw2599]

EWS have been steadly going down hill long before all this "credit crunch" stuff came into being. Still bad news for the staff directly affected though!

[almark]

Haven't FL stole a lot of their traffic too?

[mattvince]

The problem is that railfreight - and freight in general - is a canary* to wider economic problems. EWS has been dependant on bulk goods, and whilst it may be able to stay roughly afloat with coal traffic (on simple grounds that the amount of coal the country burns is not going to reduce dramatically), the problems in the manufacturing sector, and particularly the automotive sector, will rub off on suppliers - so the news should be read in context with other stories, such as http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7764341.stm.

* Canary, as in the caged bird taken down the mines to warn of poisonous gases.

[spartacus]

Ah, but they've lost a sizable amount of coal traffic to Freightliner, GBRf and now Fastline. Besides, economic downturns do tend to result in lower demand for electricity due to declining industrial output, although with so little industry left in the UK I can't see there being a massive change in demand now.

EWS have been overstaffed for quite a while, losing traffic but keeping staff so this was inevitable really.

[daveannjon]

It's probably just a drop in the ocean but DRS have announced a £1m contract to move construction materials for a nuclear waste installation.

DaveW