Passengers are being urged not to travel by train next week as Britain’s biggest rail strike for more than 30 years triggers six days of chaos.
Train bosses advised customers to “only travel if absolutely essential” as a mass walk-out by tens of thousands of workers threatens to bring the country’s rail network to a virtual standstill.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union today called for a face-to-face meeting with Transport Secretary Grant Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Yet it came as union-bashing Tory ministers were accused of a “dereliction of duty” for failing to meet rail workers’ leaders for three months.
Just one in five services are expected to run on next week’s three days of strikes - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday -and six lines will be completely closed.
The knock-on impact will cause disruption to many routes on the non-strike days in-between - Wednesday and Friday - as well as the following Sunday.
The The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union claims more than 50,000 members at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies will take to the picket lines in a row over pay and job losses.
In all, half of Britain’s rail lines will be closed with no passenger services serving locations such as Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, Swansea in South Wales, Holyhead in North Wales, and Blackpool, Lancashire. There will also be no passenger trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Where limited services are running, they will mostly start at around 7.30am and finish by 6.30pm on strikes days.
A special timetable is due to be published on Friday showing services that will operate.
London Underground staff are also due to strike on Tuesday in a separate dispute over pensions and job losses.
Network Rail says thousands of specially trained back-up staff will step-in during the planned walk-outs to keep vital services running.
But as they are a fraction of the usual Andrew Haines, Network Rail 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.”
Steve Montgomery, chair of 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.”
Most of the 13 train companies impacted said they planned to run severely reduced services, and none on many routes.
Northern Trains, for example, is asking customers not to travel on its services between the whole of next Tuesday and Sunday.
South Western Railway said it would run a “dramatically reduced” timetable on strike days, with “significant parts” of its network closed.
But others operators vowed to run as many services as possible.
LNER, which operates the East Coast Mainline, says it plans to run around 38% of its usual trains on the strike days, although they are likely to be “very busy.”
Great Western Railway said it aimed to operate “as many trains as possible”.
They includes routes from London Paddington, through Reading, as far as Cardiff Central, as well as to Oxford, Basingstoke, Westbury, Bristol Temple Meads and Plymouth.
Where services run, it also warned they are expected to be “extremely busy”.
The RMT workers union today called for a face-to-face meeting with Mr Shapps and Mr Sunak.
In a letter to Mr Shapps, RMT general secretary Mike Lynch claims the Treasury is “calling the shots” and not allowing rail employers to reach a negotiated settlement with the union.
It came as Labour claimed the last meeting between unions and transport ministers was on March 8, when Rail Minister Wendy Morton discussed workforce reform.
In a letter to Mr Shapps, Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh wrote: “It is frankly extraordinary that it appears you have yet to hold any talks on the biggest rail dispute in a generation.
“This is a dereliction of duty and an insult to the hundreds of thousands of passengers who depend on this despite being resolved.
“Instead of showing some leadership, doing your job and sorting this dispute out, you would rather provoke this dispute rather than resolve.”
Mr Shapps hit back that Mr Lynch had said “just a month ago said that he would not meet with a Tory Government”.
Boris Johnson ’s spokesman added: “We are not the employer here, it is for the union to negotiate with their employees. “We cannot intervene in negotiations between rail companies and the unions.”
Downing Street denied trying to use the issue to force a “wedge” in Labour and among swing voters after Boris Johnson demanded Keir Starmer “oppose Labour’s rail strikes”.
The RMT has not been affiliated to Labour for two decades.
Keir Starmer hit back at PMQs yesterday, saying: “I don’t want the strikes to go ahead. He does so he can feed on the division.”
Rail lines that will be closed with no passenger services
- Penzance (Cornwall)
- Bournemouth (Dorset)
- Swansea (South Wales)
- Holyhead (North Wales)
- Blackpool (Lancashire)
- There will also be no passenger trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh.
