Rail industry near ‘point of no return’ with strikes
RAIL bosses have warned that the industry is reaching the ‘point of no return’ with some disruption on the trains expected even if the strikes are called off.
Only a fifth of train services will run across the country on the planned strike days next week – June 21, 23 and 25 – and at 60 per cent over the rest of the week.
But even if union RMT agrees a pay deal with the rail operators and calls off the strikes, there will still be distruption to the network, transport chiefs said.
Speaking at a Greater Manchester Transport Committee meeting yesterday, representatives from the rail industry told councillors how services in the city-region would be affected throughout the week if the strikes go ahead. But, they said some disruption is now inevitable even if the dispute is resolved. Avanti West Coast regional growth manager Charlie French said the rail operator ‘remains open to talk’ and hopes to avoid the walk-out happening.
However, he added: “We are reaching a point of no return, I think it’s fair to say. So if the strikes were called off, we would still experience some disruption on those days. It’s not a case where we can just revert.”
Avanti West Coast will be running one train an hour each way from London to Manchester during the strike with the last train leaving Piccadilly at 2.40pm. During the rest of the week, there will be seven trains an hour by midday.
However, Northern will be running a limited service for the whole week and have issued a ‘Do not travel’ notice from Tuesday, June 21, to Sunday, June 26. The rail operator will be running an hourly service from Liverpool via St Helens into Manchester, to the Airport and then on to Wilmslow and Alderley Edge.
Northern regional director Chris Jackson also revealed that the company secured a high court injunction against train drivers’ trade union ASLEF earlier this month due to a dispute over rostering which has still not been resolved.
Speaking about the RMT strikes, he said: “We’re working hard as an industry to try and reach a resolve and as I understand talks are continuing in that regard.”
TransPennine Express is asking customers to plan carefully ahead of the strike action and is advising customers to only travel on essential journeys. An amended timetable will be in place on the days of the planned strikes.
Network Rail’s stakeholder manager for the North West, Danielle Alhan, told the committee that half of the network will be shut on strikes days with 20 per cent of the trains running and only 60pc of trains running over the rest of the week.
Transport for Greater Manchester chief operating officer Bob Morris said more double trams will be running on the Metrolink during strikes days. He warned that bus services are already struggling so cannot be relied on.