During the planned nationwide rail strikes for three dates in late June, only limited passenger train services will run – most of them on key links to and from London.
Members of the RMT rail union at Network Rail and 13 train operators voted 8:1 in favour of strike action over jobs, pay and conditions, and will stage 24-hour walkouts on 21, 23 and 25 June.
According to the RMT, it is “the biggest dispute on the network since 1989” and will involve 40,000 workers.
A senior rail source said the plan was to run “as decent a rail service as we can”.
Only around half of Britain’s rail network will be open on strike days, from around 7.30am until 6.30pm.
At Network Rail, the infrastructure provider, the most critical roles in the day-to-day running of the railway are 5,000 signallers.
Management and other staff are expected to cover about half the network for about 12 hours per day. Many lines will see no trains.
Wales and Scotland are expected to see a much smaller proportion of their networks open,
The key links to and from London that will be operating, clockwise from the Thames Estuary, are:
In addition, a limited number of key routes not touching London will operate:
On all lines that are running, there will be strict limits on the amount of traffic replacement signallers could handle.
As a result of the limited hours, key final services are scheduled to leave London at:
The industrial action is timed to affect services immediately before and after the strike dates, as well as the intervening Wednesday and Friday. In particular signallers will not work overnight, which will mean the first wave of trains will be very limited on many routes.
The train operators affected include Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, GWR, LNER, Northern, Southeastern and South Western Railway.
At one train operator, GTR, backing was too low to pass the threshold for a strike. GTR normally has the highest number of passengers of any operator – with commuter journeys on Southern, Thameslink, Gatwick Express and Great Northern services in southeast England.
The dispute is expected to wipe out up to £150m in ticket revenue, with tens of millions of pounds of costs also incurred for engineering works that cannot take place.
The damage to forward revenue will be intensifed if leisure and business passengers abandon plans to make journeys later in the summer by trains.
Passengers with Advance tickets are generally entitled to full refunds on strike days, even if the train runs. Train operators will not meet claims for alternative transport.
Of the 71 per cent of members who voted, 89 per cent backed strike action. This represents 63 per cent of the workforce balloted, numbering more than 25,000 workers.
