Rail passengers are being warned that they will face major disruption tomorrow (Tuesday) and on other days this week as the latest round of train strikes get underway.
Members of the RMT, TSSA and Unite unions will all take industrial action on Tuesday December 13, Wednesday 14, Friday December 16 and Saturday December 17. This will involve national walkouts from staff at Network Rail and impact all train operators at Liverpool Lime Street station.
All train travel for our region will be impacted. This includes the Merseyrail network. We've rounded up all the important information about which services are and are not running across the strike days this week.
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Merseyrail
While Merseyrail staff are not taking part in this industrial action, the Merseyrail network will be affected as Network Rail staff who operate signalling systems and provide maintenance support will be heading out on strike.
Because of this, no Merseyrail trains will run before 7.30am or after 6.30pm on any lines. There will also be no trains at all on the Hunts Cross line. Other lines will have a 45-minute service in place, rather than the usual 15-minute service.
Here is a summary of services that will operate tomorrow and on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
- Chester and Ellesmere Port lines : No trains will operate between Chester and Rock Ferry or Ellesmere Port and Rock Ferry. Trains will run every 45 minutes between Rock Ferry and Liverpool Central, calling at all stations.
- New Brighton line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- West Kirby line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Southport line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Hunts Cross line: No trains will operate between Liverpool Central and Hunts Cross.
- Ormskirk line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Kirkby line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
On Thursday 15 December trains will be reintroduced from 06:50.
Liverpool Lime Street
The strikes will mean a significantly reduced timetable operating out of Lime Street Station. A reduced timetable will see just two trains per hour leaving the station on those days, compared with 13 per hour on a normal weekday.
Trains will run from 7am and last trains will leave between 3pm and 5pm with final arrivals by 6.30pm. Liverpool Lime Street will close completely at 7pm on strike days. Network Rail said services are expected to be busy and a queuing system may be in place to board trains.
Northern Rail
Northern, which operates trains in and out of Merseyside to other parts of the north of England, is advising people not to travel at all between tomorrow and Saturday, predicting "major disruption" across the whole rail network.
You check out Northern's revised timetables here.
Trans Pennine Express
Another of the key operators serving our region is also urging people to avoid travelling by train during the strikes. Transpennine Express says all travel should be avoided on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December - while says the non-strike day of Thursday December 15 could still see severe disruption.
In fact, the operator will be offering zero services in and out of Liverpool at any point during the four strike days this week. You can read the full revised timetables here.
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