During the planned nationwide rail strikes for three dates in late June, only 22 per cent of passenger train services will run – most of them on key links to and from London.
Members of the RMT rail union at Network Rail and 13 train operators voted 8:1 in favour of strike action over jobs, pay and conditions, and will stage 24-hour walkouts on 21, 23 and 25 June.
According to the RMT, it is “the biggest dispute on the network since 1989” and will involve 40,000 workers.
A senior rail source said the plan was to run “as decent a rail service as we can”.
Only around half of Britain’s rail network will be open on strike days, from around 7.30am until 6.30pm.
At Network Rail, the infrastructure provider, the most critical roles in the day-to-day running of the railway are 5,000 signallers.
Management and other staff are expected to cover about half the network for about 11 hours per day. Many lines will see no trains.
Wales and Scotland are expected to see a much smaller proportion of their networks open.
Across Great Britain, 4,500 of the usual 20,000 daily passenger trains are expected to run.
The key links to and from London that will be operating, clockwise from the Thames Estuary, are:
- HS1 from London St Pancras to Ashford (including Eurostar services 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 main line from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow
- East Midlands Railway from London St Pancras to Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield
- East Coast main 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 limited number of key routes not touching London will operate:
- Glasgow to Edinburgh
- Cardiff to the Valleys
- Birmingham to Leeds
- Isle of Wight
- East-west links from Liverpool via Manchester and Leeds to Cleethorpes and Middlesbrough, with some trains serving Manchester airport
Even on lines that are running, not every station will be open. For example, 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,…
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