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Large swaths of Britain are without any rail service this week with coordinated strikes bringing the country’s transport network to a halt after last-ditch talks failed to resolve a dispute over wages, jobs and conditions.
The next strike day is scheduled for Saturday, June 25.
Major transport hubs in Cornwall, Wales, Dorset, Cheshire, Lancashire and Scotland will not have rail links.
Network Rail has previously said the widespread industrial action will mean there are no services to Penzance, Bournemouth, Swansea, Holyhead, Chester and Blackpool, as well as no trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh in Scotland .
The lines are be open only from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.which means that services start later and end earlier than usual.
The last services from London to Scotland will depart in the early afternoon of Thursday and Saturday.
Passengers are urged to travel only when absolutely necessary as train services have been reduced to just 4,500, less than a quarter of the 20,000 normally provided each day.
Speaking to LBC radio on Tuesday, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused RMT leader Mick Lynch of wanting to turn himself into one of the “union barons of the 1970s” after Mr Lynch said to Sky News: “If the government doesn’t change direction, I no longer believe a strike is inevitable. As unions, we need to sync up.
“If we need industrial action, we need to coordinate industrial action in every town and city,” Mr Lynch said, saying the British worker needed a pay rise.
What trains run on strike days?
East Midlands
East Midlands Railway will operate a single 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 Railway
Northern Railway will operate hourly services from Leeds to Sheffield, York and Bradford Forster Square. Services will also be available from Ilkely and Skipton.
Trans Pennine Express
Trans Pennine Express will run five trains between Manchester Airport and Preston on strike days and one train per hour between Manchester and York.
The following stations will be completely closed and no TransPennine services will call there on strike days: Hull; yarm; Scarborough; crimper; Malton; Selby; Brough.
Greater England
Greater England confirmed that all East Anglia regional and branch services will be canceled on strike days and there will only be a heavily reduced service on some routes to London Liverpool Street.
This will include one train per 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 equivalent 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.
South East
Only 35 of the 180 stations in the south-east will be open and no rail replacement buses will serve the closed stations.
South East will also not run trains from Victoria or Charing Cross and there will be a limited service on the Woolwich, Sidcup and Bexleyheath lines.
Chiltern Railway
There will not be 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 West
South West 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 operate no service on any lines in Cornwall, as well as on any branch lines in Devon.
There will be a very limited service to London Paddington – with hourly trains between London and Cardiff.
West Midlands
West Midlands Railway will run one train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Wolverhampton on strike days. No trains will run from Birmingham to Walsall, Hereford and Shrewsbury.
There will be only one train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International daily from Tuesday to Saturday.
Cross country
Cross country will not operate services from Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport during the three days of the strike, while a ‘very limited service’ is to operate 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 Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston, with a limited service to Glasgow.
Trains will also not stop at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent or Runcorn, and those stations will be closed.
Meanwhile, North Wales, Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Edinburgh will not have Avanti West Coast services on strike days.
Tube
Saturday’s nationwide rail strikes will also affect the Elizabeth line and London Overground services, as well as some Tube services, on strike days and until mid-morning on days following the strikes.
There will be a reduced service on the London Overground and Elizabeth lines on Saturday and Overground passengers are being warned to complete their journey by 6pm.
Across the country, almost a third of local authorities (125 out of 323) will have no station providing services on the day of the strike.
The Telegraph found that of the 2,118 stations not run by Transport for London or ScotRail, some 1,426 will see no train service during the day.
In a typical year, these stations would see an average of 1.6 million entries and exits each day. The busiest stations closed this week were 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).
Trips must be completed by 6:30 p.m. An analysis across 14 major cities showed that an average of 381,726 passengers normally depart from 7pm on weekdays – all journeys which will not be able to take place on strike days.
This means that at least 1.1 million evening journeys will be cancelled. However, the actual number is likely to be much higher.
The misery will last all week
The disruption is expected to last all week, including non-strike days, as flaggers and controllers will not work overnight on strike days. Consequently, the network will only offer 12,000 to 14,000 services on non-strike days due to the ripple effects of the strike.
Although the action was only scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the misery for commuters is expected to last all week as flaggers 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 ripple effects of the action.
Chaos on rail routes will mean many commuters will be forced to find alternative routes to workthreatening to increase congestion on the rural road network.
Steve Montgomery, who chairs industry body Rail Delivery Group, said: “These strikes will affect the millions of people who use the train every day, including key workers, students taking exams, those unable to work at home, vacationers and those attending important business and leisure events.
“Together with Network Rail, our plan is to maintain as many services as possible, but significant disruption will be inevitable and parts of the network will have no service, so passengers should plan their journeys carefully and check their train times. .”
Some major rail lines will only run four trains a day this week as the the biggest strike in more than 30 years brings the transport network to a near-stop.
Passengers hoping to travel from London to Glasgow saw a 77% reduction in their choice on Tuesday. On a typical day, they would have 17 train times to choose from, but that number has dropped to just four. The last train will leave at 1:30 p.m.
Network Rail published its modified calendar before the general strike. He confirmed last week that around half of all roads are set to close and services will be cut by 80%.
He said main lines will be prioritized for passenger services across the country. However, some major routes will have no trains running and others will see a decline of over 90%.
Analysis by The Telegraph showed the number of trains from London to Birmingham is expected to fall from 82 a day to just eight on Tuesday, while London to Bournemouth is expected to have no trains running. Passengers would normally have a choice of 38 trains if traveling between the two destinations.
Why railway workers are on strike
NR has made a 2.5 per cent wage offer to the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), which votes 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 this could be achieved by voluntary means, especially as a ‘significant’ number of staff were over 60 year.
NR wanted to introduce changes in work practices related to technologies such as the use of drones to check tracks and infrastructure, which the company said would be safer than having workers on the tracks, as well as more profitable.
“There’s a history of resistance to change due to technology, but we can’t hold back the tide,” Haines said.
He cited a decision by NR to introduce an app to communicate with staff across the country which he said took a year to get union agreement.
The railways were facing a “fundamental financial deficit”, with fewer passengers traveling due to the pandemic, particularly on Fridays, although figures improved for weekend leisure travel, said NR.
This article is kept up to date with the latest information.
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