The Scottish Government and Network Rail are under fresh pressure to end the “filthy and disgusting practice” of dumping raw sewage onto railway tracks.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers’ Union (RMT) has urged officials from both organisations to put pressure on new ScotRail operator Abellio to bring forward the proposed date for fitting all carriages with retention tanks.
The franchise documentation talked of 2020 as the target date for ending the dumping of effluent and since then Transport Minister Keith Brown has brought it forward to December 2017.
But RMT believes that April 2016 is a “realistic and achievable” target.
Mr Brown has revealed that 479 of 527 ScotRail carriages operating across the country were connected to effluent retention tanks.
Sewage is dumped by carriages that serve Oban, Fort William and Mallaig.
RMT said the “unhygienic and potentially unhealthy” practice upset many of its members who work on the tracks.
Union general secretary Mick Cash said: “We believe that April 2016 is a perfectly realistic and achievable target for halting this filthy and disgusting practice.
“Abellio is set to make a fortune out of the Scotrail franchise and the very least they should be forced to do is to dip in their pockets and retro-fit the retention tanks.
“RMT has said all along that if it was wealthy bankers getting sprayed with sewage rather than rail workers then this scandal would be ended overnight. RMT’s campaign goes on.”
Highland Labour MSP Rhoda Grant pointed out that the Scottish Government had awarded the £6billion, 10-year ScotRail franchise to Dutch rail operator Abellio from next year and could not understand why it would take a further two years to upgrade 48 carriages.
A Transport Scotland spokesman said it had been aware of the issue for some time and have made it a requirement of the new franchise that all rolling stock must be fitted with controlled emission tanks.
“For a modern railway it is vital that all franchise operated trains on Scotland’s railways are fitted with these tanks,” he added.
“Mr Brown has called on the department for transport to follow our lead and have the same requirement written into all cross border franchise contracts.
“A delivery timeframe was agreed with Abellio to ensure all rolling stock are fitted as soon as possible with minimal disruption to passengers.”
