Now militants want week of strikes

Hardline union members are now demanding a week-long strike on South West Trains on top of the 48-hour stoppages already hitting hundreds of thousands of rail commuters.

Greg Tucker, the RMT activist at the centre of the strikes, spoke of the threat of escalating union action as 350,000 commuters struggled to get to work today with SWT managers helping to keep 600 of the company's 1,700 daily services running.

He said: "SWT seems to be intent on doing all they can to break the strike and destroy the union." Speaking on a Waterloo station picket line he added: "Our members are more determined that ever and many are now calling for week-long strikes."

A SWT spokeswoman said: "This confirms our view that the RMT is strikehappy at the moment. She called on the union to "return to the negotiating table."

Union leaders are expected to meet later this week to discuss future tactics in the dispute over pay and disciplinary matters - estimated to be costing London £12million a day in lost output.

Passengers defied the union barons today simply by getting to work. They left home hours earlier, waited for ages for the few trains that did run, and then found them already packed. As if that wasn't bad enough they also suffered a signal failure at Woking, a key junction on the lines which had offered a skeleton service. Yet they still got through.

Many commuters took to the roads, jamming the M3 and M4 from the early hours, while others had a tortuous journey by coach from stations without trains to those which did.

Recruitment consultant Ernest Kwateng, 28, from Surbiton, summed up the feelings of most of the commuters for whom this is the third 48-hour strike this month: "For us there are no alternatives. We just have to get on with it."

Key points in the dispute include:

? Cancellation of 1,100 services, with only 600 trains running.

? SWT setting up a permanent, rapid-reaction strike-breaking force of managers to replace strikers.

? No new peace talks planned - SWT and the RMT, largest of the rail unions, accuse each other of failing to get back to the negotiating table.

? Passengers face the same horrendous journeys tomorrow.

Andrew Haines, managing director of SWT, said of the strikebreaking managers: "We are determined that never again should the RMT hold our passengers to ransom."

The managers forming the elite group - perhaps 200 strong - will keep qualifications such as safety and route knowledge up-to-date in addition to their routine office duties. They could take over as train guards and take on station duties, and they may also include drivers.

SWT, as the Evening Standard revealed last Monday, has already ordered managers out from behind their desks to provide a skeleton service. But it has been handicapped by having to train them first to comply with national safety standards.

Mr Haines, 37, said: "We will be much better prepared next time. We cannot sit idly by while the RMT pursues its political agenda. If the next strikes go ahead on 12 and 13 February we will run many more trains again, eventually allowing us to run 1,000 trains a day. If the strikes continue we will train more of our people to act as guards until we operate a full service," he said.

All replacement staff have been validated and safety watchdog, the Railway Inspectorate, "is content with what we are doing", he said. An SWT spokeswoman dismissed as "ridiculous" weekend claims that SWT is planning to replace all its 2,100 staff involved in the dispute with non-unionised staff.

Vernon Hince, acting general secretary of the RMT, claimed that SWT was unwilling to return to the negotiating table. He added: "They are attempting to get managers to do the job with very little training."

The strike caused massive travel chaos throughout south-west London, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset. Worst affected were local suburban services and there was a huge area, including the Dorking, West Croydon, Chessington South, Hampton Court and Shepperton branch lines without any SWT service at all. Nothing ran on the Hounslow-Kew Bridge loop line. Nor was there any service from many normally busy local stations such as Richmond, Barnes, Putney and Wandsworth Town.