A weekend of travel chaos is looming this weekend as rail workers prepare for their third day of industrial action this week.
Passengers have been warned to “only travel by train if necessary”, with only a fifth of services set to run and half of lines closed as 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union walk out over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions.
Meanwhile, services on Friday reeled from a knock-on impact of Thursday’s strike, because of a delay to the start of services as signallers and control room staff declined to turn up for overnight shifts.
This week’s strikes are unlikely to be the end of the disruption, however, with an announcement that another union – the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) – will vote on industrial action throughout the summer.
The union’s general-secretary Manuel Cortes warned on Friday of “a long-running summer of discontent across our rail network” unless ministers either give the green light for operators to “make us a reasonable offer” or “come to the negotiating table and speak to us directly”.
‘Nervousness’ within rail industry over tomorrow’s strike, source claims
A rail industry source told the PA news agency that while stations were “relatively quiet” during the first two strike days, there is “a nervousness” about what will happen on Saturday.
Many seaside resorts will have no services on Saturday, including Bournemouth, Dorset; Blackpool, Lancashire; Margate, Kent; Llandudno, north Wales; and Skegness, Lincolnshire. Cornwall will also have no trains.
Services across Britain will primarily be restricted to main lines, but even those will only be open between 7.30am and 6.30pm. That means first trains will leave later and last trains will be much earlier than normal.
Disruption will continue into Sunday.
Could by-election defeats conceivably speed a rail settlement?
In his latest travel podcast for The Independent, travel correspondent Simon Calder picks up on the two by-election defeats for the government. He points out the little-known fact that Wakefield and Tiverton are connected every two hours by direct train – except on days when railway workers are on strike, as on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week.
While the war of words between the RMT union and the government continues, Calder speculates that ministers may wish swiftly to resolve the trains issue – fearing that it is adding to the…
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