RMT general secretary, Eddie Dempsey, said: “On top of faulty toilets, broken air con systems and communication and door issues we are seeing trains stranded on the track and staff are losing confidence in safety levels.
“RMT is demanding that whilst these faults exist and until these trains are shown to be operating properly, they should be taken out of service.”
On Saturday, an EMR spokesperson said the firm continued to “engage constructively with the RMT as discussions progress”.
They added: “As with any new fleet introduction, a small number of issues have been identified during the early operation of the Class 810 fleet, but no safety-critical faults have been identified that prevent the trains from meeting regulatory requirements for passenger service.
“If a full reset of the train is required, it is the driver’s responsibility to ensure that the controlling signaller is made aware of the train fault, establish a secondary means of communication with the signaller (for example, a mobile phone) and ensure a full all line block has been granted before doing so.
“Additionally, authorisation must be received from EMR’s control team before undertaking a full Class 810 train reset.
“We would not introduce a Class 810 into service unless we were confident it could operate safely and in line with our safety management processes. Hitachi Rail, as the manufacturer and maintainer, is continuing to resolve identified issues and improve fleet reliability as quickly as possible.”