All of the trains operating throughout nationwide rail strike
During the deliberate nationwide rail strikes for three dates in late June, solely restricted passenger prepare companies will run – most of them on key hyperlinks to and from London.
Members of the RMT rail union at Network Rail and 13 prepare operators voted 8:1 in favour of strike motion over jobs, pay and situations, and can stage 24-hour walkouts on 21, 23 and 25 June.
According to the RMT, it’s “the biggest dispute on the network since 1989” and can contain 40,000 staff.
A senior rail supply mentioned the plan was to run “as decent a rail service as we can”.
Only round half of Britain’s rail community will probably be open on strike days, from round 7.30am till 6.30pm.
At Network Rail, the infrastructure supplier, essentially the most essential roles within the day-to-day operating of the railway are 5,000 signallers.
Management and different employees are anticipated to cowl about half the community for about 11 hours per day. Many strains will see no trains.
Wales and Scotland are anticipated to see a a lot smaller proportion of their networks open.
The key hyperlinks to and from London that will probably be working, clockwise from the Thames Estuary, are:
- HS1 from London St Pancras to Ashford (together with Eurostar companies to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam)
- London to Gatwick airport and Brighton
- London Waterloo to Reading, Winchester and Southampton
- London Paddington to Reading, Taunton. Exeter, Plymouth, Bath, Bristol, Cardiff
- London Paddington to Heathrow airport (all terminals)
- London Marylebone to Banbury
- West Coast most important line from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow
- East Midlands Railway from London St Pancras to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield
- East Coast most important line from London King’s Cross to Leeds, York and Newcastle
- London King’s Cross to Cambridge and Ely
- London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport and Cambridge
In addition, a restricted variety of key routes not touching London will function:
- Glasgow to Edinburgh
- Cardiff to the Valleys
- Birmingham to Leeds
- Isle of Wight
- East-west hyperlinks from Liverpool by way of Manchester and Leeds to Cleethorpes and Middlesbrough, with some trains serving Manchester airport
Even on strains which can be operating, not each station will probably be open. For instance, Avanti West Coast says: “Due to the different signalling system in use on some parts of the West Coast main line, which is more resource-intensive to operate, the intercity operator is unable to stop trains at Stoke-on-Trent, Macclesfield, Stockport, as well as Runcorn, on strike days and these stations will not be open.
On all lines that are running, there will be strict limits on the amount of traffic replacement signallers could handle.
As a result of the limited hours, key final services are scheduled to leave London at:
- Bristol 4.33pm
- Cardiff 4.27pm
- Birmingham 3.50pm
- Manchester 3.40pm
- Sheffield 3.31pm
- Leeds 3.05pm
- Newcastle 3pm
- Edinburgh 2pm
The industrial action is timed to affect services immediately before and after the strike dates, as well as the intervening Wednesday and Friday. In particular signallers will not work overnight, which will mean the first wave of trains will be very limited on many routes.
The train operators affected include Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, GWR, LNER, Northern, Southeastern and South Western Railway.
At one train operator, GTR, backing was too low to pass the threshold for a strike. GTR normally has the highest number of passengers of any operator – with commuter journeys on Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern services in southeast England.
The dispute is expected to wipe out up to £150m in ticket revenue, with tens of millions of pounds of costs also incurred for engineering works that cannot take place.
The damage to forward revenue will be intensifed if leisure and business passengers abandon plans to make journeys later in the summer by trains.
Passengers with Advance tickets are generally entitled to full refunds on strike days, even if the train runs. Train operators will not meet claims for alternative transport.
Of the 71 per cent of members who voted, 89 per cent backed strike action. This represents 63 per cent of the workforce balloted, numbering more than 25,000 workers.
The RMT’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, has vowed “a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system”.
The union says: “Network Rail and the train operating companies have subjected their staff to multi-year pay freezes and plan to cut thousands of jobs which will make the railways unsafe.”
Senior rail sources insist that security is not going to be compromised by modernisation, and {that a} discount in staffing
The white-collar rail union, TSSA, is threatening what its basic secretary referred to as “a summer of discontent”. Members are being consulted forward of a attainable strike poll if pay fails to maintain tempo with inflation – anticipated to achieve double figures by summer season.
