East Midlands Railway safety strike

Members of the RMT rail union employed by East Midlands Railway (EMR) took strike action over the August Bank Holiday weekend due to health and safety concerns.

These on-train workers say there are numerous unresolved issues with EMR’s new trains. They will take further action on 16 and 17 September unless the company responds with improvements.

Serious

The new Class 810 trains built by Hitachi Rail, dubbed “Aurora” by EMR, have been beset with problems since the first train was introduced last December. Considerable media coverage at the time focused on regarding the trains’ toilets. But staff have to contend with more serious ongoing issues.

‘Software failures left trains with no active safety systems.’

Air conditioning has frequently failed during this year’s hot summer. There were also problems with both internal and external doors, and with communication systems. Software failures required a full reset, during which trains were left with no active safety systems including loss of communication between train drivers, dispatchers and trackside.

In June another train collided with stationary Class 810 train whose systems had failed near Bedford . That was not the primary cause of the fatal accident according to the initial accident investigation report. But the full report will look at the reason why the train stopped.

Cavalier

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey accused EMR of being exceptionally cavalier with safety by sending out trains clearly unfit for service. He said staff had lost confidence in safety levels. The union is demanding these trains be taken out of service while these faults exist and until they are shown to be operating properly.

In July EMR made timetable changes because of reliability problems with the Aurora fleet and other train classes. But that does not get to the causes. When announcing the strike action Dempsey said, “It is now time for EMR management to act on the safety concerns of our members”.

New design

Class 810 trains appear to be similar to other Hitachi trains introduced in 2017 and now in service with LNER, Great Western and other operators. But this is actually is a new design with shorter vehicles, a re-designed cab, and different computer systems.

These trains are bi-mode, like most of their Hitachi predecessors, able to run on either diesel engines or to draw power from 25kV overhead wires. However, the distribution of diesel engines along the train is different.

Delay

The Class 810 fleet was ordered in 2019 to replace much older diesel trains – Class 222 built between 2003 and 2005. The new trains, built at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, were originally expected to enter service in 2022 but were delayed by more than three years.

Amongst the reasons for this delay was the discovery of “thermal events” within the wiring during 2025 testing which necessitated extensive rewiring of the first 12 trains in the class. The delay in introducing the new trains has contributed to the technical problems now being experienced.

Industry publication Modern Railways has catalogued a host of other issues with the design, build and in service performance of the Aurora fleet.

Troubled

Like most new trains, the troubled Aurora fleet is owned not by East Midlands Rail, the operator, but by a separate privatised rolling stock company (in this case Rock Rail).

This arrangement has long been criticised by RMT and others as inefficient and unnecessary. The union says that bringing operating companies into public ownership is only part of what’s needed for the rail industry.