Huge swathes of Britain will be without any rail services this week, Network Rail has said, as coordinated strikes threaten to cripple the country’s transport network. Last-ditch talks failed to resolve a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Major transport hubs in Cornwall, Wales, Dorset, Cheshire, Lancashire and Scotland will have no rail links.
Network Rail said the widespread industrial action will mean there will be no services to Penzance, Bournemouth, Swansea, Holyhead, Chester and Blackpool, as well as no trains running North from Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland.
Lines will only be open between 7.30am and 6.30pm, meaning services will start later and finish earlier than usual.
The last services from London to Scotland will leave in the early afternoon on the strikes days: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Passengers are urged to travel only if absolutely necessary as train services were cut from to just 4,500, less than a quarter of the normal 20,000 provided each day.
The prospect of three days of walkouts looks imminent after talks aimed at averting the strikes showed little prospect of brokering a last-minute deal.
Which trains are operating?
East Midlands
East Midlands Railway will operate just one train per hour between Nottingham and Sheffield, as well as from both cities to London. There will also be an hourly train between Corby and London.
There will be one train per hour from Derby to Nottingham and Matlock, as well as between Leicester and Nottingham.
Northern Rail
Northern Rail will operate hourly services from Leeds to Sheffield, York, Bradford Forster Square, Skipton and Ilkely.
TransPennine Express
TransPennine Express will run five trains between Manchester Airport and Preston on strike days and one an hour between Manchester and York.
The following stations will be completely closed with no TransPennine services calling there on strike days: Hull; Yarm; Scarborough; Seamer; Malton; Selby; Brough.
Greater Anglia
Greater Anglia has confirmed that all regional and branch line services in East Anglia will be cancelled on strike days and there will be only a heavily reduced service running on some lines into London Liverpool Street.
This will include one train an hour between Norwich and London, with the first and last trains from Norwich to London Liverpool Street at 8am and 4pm.
c2c
In Essex, c2c will operate a reduced service equating to less than a third of normal service levels - consisting of two trains per hour from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Laindon and to Pitsea via Rainham.
No trains will run via Ockendon or Chafford Hundred.
Southeastern
Only 35 out of 180 Southeastern stations will be open and no rail replacement buses will serve stations which are closed.
Southeastern will also not run any trains from Victoria or Charing Cross and there will be limited service on the Woolwich, Sidcup and Bexleyheath lines.
Chiltern Railway
There will be no Chiltern services north of Banbury, between Amersham and London on the Metropolitan line, or to Oxford, between Tuesday and Saturday.
Between London and Banbury, there will be one train per hour in each direction on these days.
South Western
South Western will run two trains per hour each way from Waterloo to Southampton and Basingstoke.
There will be four trains per hour each way from Waterloo to Woking and Windsor.
Great Western
Great Western Railway will not be running any services on all lines in Cornwall, as well as all branch lines in Devon.
There will be a very limited service running between London Paddington and Oxford, Cardiff and Plymouth - with hourly trains between London and Cardiff.
West Midlands
West Midlands Railway will run one train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton. There will be no trains running from Birmingham to Walsall, Hereford and Shrewsbury.
There will be just one train an hour between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International every day from Tuesday to Saturday.
CrossCountry
CrossCountry will not run services from Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport across the three strike days, while a “very limited service” is to run between Bristol Parkway, Plymouth, Birmingham New Street, Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley.
Avanti West Coast
On strike days, Avanti West Coast plans to run one train per hour from Euston to each of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston, with a limited service onwards to Glasgow.
Trains will also not call at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent or Runcorn, and these stations will be closed.
Meanwhile, north Wales, Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Edinburgh will have no Avanti West Coast services on strike days.
In London, there will be strikes affecting Tube and other TfL services on Tuesday until mid-morning on Wednesday.
National rail strikes on Thursday and Saturday will also affect Elizabeth line and London Overground services, and some Tube services, on strike days and until mid-morning on the days after strikes.
Across the country, almost a third of local authorities (125 of 323) will have no stations that run any services during the day.
The Telegraph found that of the 2,118 stations not managed by Transport for London or ScotRail, some 1,426 will see no rail service during the day.
In a typical year, these stations would see an average of 1.6 million entries and exits every day. The busiest stations to be closed on Tuesday are Bromley South in south-east London (21,845), Moorfields in Liverpool (20,168), Earlsfield in south-west London (17,860), Chester (13,955), Twickenham in south-west London (13,657) and Southport in Merseyside (12,095).
All journeys will have to be completed by 6.30pm. An analysis across 14 major cities showed that at an average 381,726 passengers normally depart from 7pm onwards on weekdays – all journeys that will not be able to take place on strike days.
That means at least 1.1 million evening journeys will be cancelled. However, the actual number is likely to be a lot higher.
Disruption is expected to last the entire week, including on non-strike days because signallers and controllers will not work overnight on strike days. As a result, the network will offer only 12,000 to 14,000 services on non-strike days because of the strike’s knock-on effects.
Misery to last all week
Although the action will be held on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the misery for commuters is expected to last the entire week because signallers and controllers will not work overnight on strike days. As a result, the network will only offer 12,000 to 14,000 services on non-strike days due to the knock-on effects of the action.
The mayhem on rail routes will mean many commuters will be forced to find alternative routes to work, threatening to increase congestion on the country road network.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Network Rail (NR) and 13 train operators are to strike for three days this week in similar disputes over pay, jobs and pensions.
Passengers "who must travel" are urged to "plan ahead" to ensure they can complete their journeys within this window, Network Rail said.
Steve Montgomery, who chairs industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said: "These strikes will affect the millions of people who use the train each day, including key workers, students with exams, those who cannot work from home, holidaymakers and those attending important business and leisure events.
"Working with Network Rail, our plan is to keep as many services running as possible, but significant disruption will be inevitable and some parts of the network will not have a service, so passengers should plan their journeys carefully and check their train times."
Andrew Haines, National Rail’s chief executive, said: "Talks have not progressed as far as I had hoped and so we must prepare for a needless national rail strike and the damaging impact it will have.
"We, and our train operating colleagues, are gearing up to run the best service we can for passengers and freight users next week despite the actions of the RMT.
"We will keep talking to try and find a compromise that could avert this hugely damaging strike but 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."
Some major railway routes will run just four trains a day this week as the largest strike in more than 30 years brings the transport network to a near-standstill.
Passengers hoping to travel from London to Glasgow will see a 77 per cent reduction in choice on Tuesday. On a typical day, they would have 17 train times to choose from, but this has fallen to just four. The last train will depart at 1.30pm.
Network Rail has published its amended timetable ahead of the widespread strike action. Huge swathes of the country will be without any rail services on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, when 40,000 members of the RMT union walk out in a dispute over pay and jobs.
Lines will be open only from 7.30am and journeys will have to be completed by 6.30pm, meaning that services will start later and finish earlier than usual.
Network Rail confirmed last week that about half of all routes would have to close and that services would be cut by 80 per cent.
It said that mainlines will be prioritised for passenger services across the country. However, some major routes will have no trains running at all and others will see a drop of more than 90 per cent.
Analysis by The Telegraph showed that the number of trains from London to Birmingham will fall from 82 a day to just eight on Tuesday, while London to Bournemouth has no trains running at all. Passengers would normally have 38 trains to choose from if travelling between the two destinations.
Any passengers determined to travel to Bournemouth would need to wait for nearly four hours at Reading on Tuesday evening to catch a rare connecting train.
Alongside the major routes from London, there will be no services to Penzance, Swansea, Holyhead, Chester and Blackpool, as well as no trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland.
The last train from Edinburgh to London will depart at 12.30pm, while the final departure from Leeds to the capital is at 3.45pm.
On strike days, LNER will operate two trains per hour between London and Edinburgh and one train per hour between London and Leeds.
Why rail staff are striking
NR has made a 2.5 per cent pay offer to the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), which is balloting its members in NR for strikes, but discussions are continuing with the RMT.
Mr Haines said NR was looking to cut between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs, insisting it could be achieved through voluntary means, particularly that a "significant" number of employees were over the age of 60.
NR wanted to introduce changes to working practices linked to technologies such as using drones to check tracks and infrastructure, which the company says would be safer than having workers on the tracks, as well as more cost effective.
"There is a history of resistance to change due to technology, but we cannot hold back the tide," said Mr Haines.
He cited a move by NR to introduce an App to communicate with staff across the country which he said took a year to seek union agreement.
The railways were facing a "fundamental financial deficit", with fewer passengers travelling as a result of the pandemic, especially on Fridays, although numbers have improved for weekend leisure travel, said NR.
Meanwhile the RMT has called for talks with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
General secretary Mick Lynch said in a letter that the Treasury was "calling the shots" and not allowing rail employers to reach a negotiated settlement.
"In effect, in recent weeks, the union has been negotiating with the Government but the Government have not been in the room," he wrote.
Mr Haines denied the RMT's claim, saying the Treasury had set a financial framework, but NR was leading talks on productivity it believes is needed for pay rises.
