Practice strike UK 2022: Grant Shapps warns towards walkout forward of deliberate industrial motion

GTR, the southeast England practice operator which carries extra passengers than some other within the UK, has introduced its strike plan for subsequent week. It warns travellers of extreme disruption.

Much of the Southern community from London Victoria and London Bridge to south London, Surrey and Sussex might be closed on the strike days.

Services will run on the Brighton Mainline to London Bridge and London Victoria, with extra trains from Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Sutton and West Croydon, through Crystal Palace.

An amended Sunday service will function after every strike day.

The Thameslink line, which usually connects the south coast with Cambridge, Peterborough and Bedford, might be break up in two – with no service between London St Pancras and London Bridge.

On Great Northern, a lot of the community might be closed on the strike days, with no providers north of Ely to King’s Lynn.

The Gatwick Express won’t run on strike days, and on the times instantly after every strikes (so 22, 24 and 26 June), there might be late begins and early finishes.

Disruption to the London Underground community is predicted over a number of days subsequent week.

Transport for London (TfL) “strongly encouraged” folks to not journey on London Underground on Tuesday 21 June due to a 24-hour walkout by RMT and Unite members.

TfL mentioned it expects extreme disruption or no service on all Tube traces that day, with no providers earlier than 8am the next day.

Meanwhile, there may also be a decreased service on London Overground and the brand new Elizabeth line on the three days of the RMT’s rail strikes: 21, 23 and 25 June.

The common secretary of the RMT union, Mick Lynch, has vowed “a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system”.

His members working for Network Rail and 13 practice operators are to strike on 21, 23 and 25 June, with results on the intervening days and the next day, 26 June.

But there are huge areas of England, Wales and Scotland that can see no passenger trains.

Here are all of the providers cancelled on strike days:

The transport secretary Grant Shapps has mentioned that rail customers will have the ability to declare compensation if no trains can be found to them subsequent week.

“Passengers will be compensated for the disruption. In addition to existing refund agreements that are already in place, we will ensure season ticket holders will be able to claim full compensation on strike days,” mentioned Mr Shapps, addressing press at a rail depot in Hornsey, north London, this morning.

He additionally raised the opportunity of drafting in company staff to fill the positions of rail staff on strike.

“That will be very much quicker,” mentioned Mr Shapps. “If this strike drags on… then transferable skills, sometimes called agency working, would be something which would become available in this particular dispute.”

One of probably the most distant hospitality places in Scotland has taken to social media to announce “lots of rooms available” on account of the forthcoming nationwide rail strike.

The Moor of Rannoch Restaurant & Rooms, on the West Highland line to Fort William, has tweeted:

“MASS CANCELLATIONS = Lots of rooms available !!!

“Due to RMT Industrial action the railways across the UK will effectively grind to a halt between 21st & 26th June.

“70% of our guests usually arrive/depart by train, unfortunately we have lost almost all of our bookings that week.”

Rooms can be found on 20 June and 23-26 June.

For the primary day of the nationwide rail strike, Tuesday 21 June, members of the RMT union working for the London Underground may also cease work.

Transport for London (TfL) says: “On Tuesday 21 June, strike action will severely disrupt most of TfL’s and national rail’s services. We are advising customers not to travel during this action.

“Any Tube services that do operate are unlikely to run after 19:00, so anyone who needs to travel should complete their journey by 18:00.

“Services which are running, including buses and DLR, are likely to be extremely busy with queues to board. Customers using DLR services from stations also served by the Tube are advised to check before they travel due to possible station closures.”

TfL says: “Disruption on all Tube lines will continue through the morning of Wednesday 22 June.

“No London Underground services are expected to run before 08:00. We encourage customers to avoid making journeys until mid-morning.”

During the deliberate nationwide rail strikes for 3 dates in late June, solely 22 per cent of passenger practice providers will run – most of them on key hyperlinks to and from London.

A senior rail supply mentioned the plan was to run “as decent a rail service as we can”.

Across Great Britain, 4,500 of the same old 20,000 every day passenger trains are anticipated to run.

Here are the important thing hyperlinks which are nonetheless anticipated to run:

Next week’s rail strikes are “an incredible act of self-harm by the [RMT] union leadership,” the transport secretary has mentioned.

Grant Shapps was talking at a practice depot in north London, the place he described the forthcoming industrial motion as “a bid to derail reforms that are critical to the network’s future, and designed to inflict damage at the worst possible time”.

He mentioned: “Make no mistake, unlike the past 25 years, when rising passenger demand year after year was taken for granted by the industry, today the railway is in a fight.

“It’s not only competing against other forms of public and private transport. It’s in a battle with Zoom, Teams and remote working.

“In case the unions haven’t noticed, the world has changed.”

He issued an enchantment to rail staff, saying he believes they’re “less militant” than their union leaders.

“Don’t risk striking yourselves out of a job,” he mentioned.

Network Rail has instructed practice customers to solely journey if needed over the three strike days subsequent week, in addition to suggesting that disruption may spill over into the non-strike days round them.

“Make no mistake, the level of service we will be able to offer will be significantly compromised and passengers need to take that into account and to plan ahead and only travel if it’s really necessary to do so,” mentioned Network Rail boss Andrew Haines.

It printed two maps displaying the practice routes that can run on subsequent week’s strike dates, displaying a transparent swathe of train-free land in Wales.

Several practice operators whose staff will be part of the strike – together with Southeastern, TransPennine and Avanti West Coast – have equally urged passengers to remain at house or use different technique of transport if attainable.

Britain’s largest rail union, the RMT, has referred to as three days of business motion subsequent week – affecting each Network Rail and 13 practice operators.

The dispute is over pay, redundancies and “a guarantee there will be no detrimental changes to working practices”.

The RMT 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.”

The union’s common secretary, Mick Lynch, has vowed “a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system”.