Rail strikes: when are they and how bad will the disruption be?
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has called three 24-hour strikes in a week in late June.
The three strike days are Tuesday 21 June, Thursday 23 June and Saturday 25 June. RMT members will strike at Network Rail and 13 English train companies: Chiltern, Cross Country, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands, c2c, Great Western, Northern, South Eastern, South Western, TransPennine, Avanti West Coast and West Midlands.
Because Network Rail staff – including signallers, who are crucial to the daily operation – work across Britain, the walkouts will affect Scotland and Wales too.
In a separate but parallel dispute, RMT members on the London Underground will also strike on 21 June.
Some trains will continue to run in bigger conurbations, but only for a limited time. Network Rail and train companies are drawing up a contingency timetable now. The broad expectation is that a few trains will run on the main lines and into cities between 7am and 7pm on strike days – roughly 20% of the service.
Because the strikes stop all shifts starting in each 24-hour period, much overnight work – including maintenance and returning trains to depots – will also not take place, meaning a later start and fewer services on Wednesday and Friday too. Monday’s services may also be curtailed earlier, and Sunday’s start later, effectively meaning some disruption over seven days.
The Tuesday Tube strike will be London-wide, with all 10,000 RMT members striking. That means the full-scale closures seen in March, rather than the major disruption in central London brought by the station staff strike this week.
The one big train firm that has not voted to strike is GTR, whose Thameslink trains also rely on highly automated signalling to
Read more on theguardian.com
