Glasgow campaigners in call to bring jobs back to axed Caley rail works

Unite the Union activists and Scottish Labour candidate for Maryhill and Springburn, Keiran O’Neill at this year’s Scottish Parliament election have urged transport secretary Michael Matheson to take action over the vacant site.

In total, 200 workers at the St Rollox yard lost their jobs after the decision was made to close the depot, locally known as the Caley despite a campaign by Unite, along with then Labour MP for Glasgow North East, Paul Sweeney to keep the works open.

The Glasgow Times has previously reported that Scottish Enterprise, a government body, has been looking into various options for the sale of the vacant depot, currently owned by Hansteen Holding. Both Mr O’Neill and Unite claim that little has come of this.

It is also claimed that a working group set up to explore new options for the site has not met since July 2019 when workers received their redundancy notices. The campaigners believe that the most viable option for the site would be for Network Rail to operate the depot in order to allow the former Caley workers to return to skilled jobs at the site.

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Mr O’Neill said: “It’s been 550 days since the workers of the Caley left the works with their heads held high for the last time. Since then the Government appears to have taken zero action or initiative to get them back.

“Time after time, the Government was presented with proposal after proposal detailing viable futures for the depot if they only just intervened and each time they refused. But that never stopped them at Fergusons or Bi-Fab, so why was Springburn just left on the scrap heap?

“If they were serious about it, they would listen to the trade unions and former workers who have repeatedly called on them to take the site into public ownership.

“Today I am urging Michael Matheson to do the right thing and get Network Rail to take over the works so that its future is in public hands.”

Labour man Keiran O'Neill is urging the Scottish Government to take action on the vacant site

Unite shop steward and former Caley worker Les Ashton said: “Despite the refusal of the Government to intervene when they could and should have to save both the site and the 200 highly skilled jobs in Springburn, the Trade Unions and the former workforce are still as determined and as passionate in their fight to see the works reopen.

“The reopening will enable Scotland’s railways to repair and refurbish the country’s rolling stock here in ­Scotland.

“The workers have not gone away, we are ready to do our bit to get the Caley back on track, but we need the SNP Government to finally stop sitting on its hands and actually show some interest in restoring Springburn’s railway industry to its former glory.”

The depot was used to ­carry out essential repair and servicing works of trains from the nearby Queen Street Station for almost 170 years. The Glasgow Times understands that trains are now being taken to England to have work completed on them.

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Mr Sweeney said: “I was assured by Transport Minister, Michael Matheson while I was MP for Springburn that the Scottish Government working group would continue to develop the railway engineering hub project for the site, but we’ve heard nothing since its closure in July 2019. With the buildings suffering decay after a 18 months of abandonment, it’s now essential that the Government moves urgently so it can properly control and more effectively direct the creation of a new railway engineering centre, as the Minister had promised the Government would do.”

Paul Sweeney, former MP for Glasgow North East campaigned to keep the Caley open

The Scottish Government have declined to comment.