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Rail strikes to severely disrupt travel in Great
Britain this weekend
RMT staff at 14 operators to take action, affecting
LNER, Avanti, LNER and Southern among others
Gwyn Topham
Transport correspondent
@GwynTopham
Sat 18 Mar
2023 05.00 GMT
Rail travel
around Great Britain will be severely disrupted again this weekend after the
second 24-hour strike in three days started on Saturday morning.
Thousands
of members of the RMT union working as train staff at 14 operators are on
strike in the long-running dispute over pay and jobs.
Passengers
have been urged to check before travel, with some operators advising to attempt
to travel by train only if absolutely necessary.
Just under
50% of train services are expected to run in total, but with wide disparities
in regions and operators.
With
signallers not on strike, trains operated by transport authorities in Scotland
and Wales and within London and Merseyside are running.
But some
routes around England will be closed entirely, with all three nations of Great
Britain affected by severely reduced cross-border services, particularly on
LNER, and on Avanti to north Wales.
Other
long-distance operators, including Avanti, GWR and East Midlands, will run
hourly intercity services.
CrossCountry,
TransPennine, West Midlands, Northern and Chiltern will all cut trains back
significantly from normal routes.
Some
networks in the south are expected to be badly hit, with most stations on
SouthEastern closed, and South Western and Southern affected by engineering
works.
Only C2C
and parts of Greater Anglia are expected to remain largely unaffected by the
action.
Across the
railway, disruption could persist early on Sunday. The industry body, the Rail
Delivery Group, has urged passengers to check before they travel for updates.
The 14
train companies where staff are striking are: Avanti West Coast; C2C; Chiltern;
CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; GTR (Thameslink, Great Northern and
Southern); Great Western Railway; Greater Anglia; LNER; West Midlands,
including London Northwestern Railway; Northern; South Western Railway;
Southeastern; and TransPennine Express.
Further
strikes are scheduled by RMT train staff for 30 March and 1 April.
The
industry has urged the RMT to call off further strikes and put the 9% pay offer
made by train operators to its members for a vote.
Network
Rail is not currently facing strikes, with RMT members voting in a referendum
on a pay offer, and the result due from Monday afternoon.
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