Strike misery for passengers
REDUCED SERVICES RUNNING AT WEEKEND
Rail travellers hit by reduced services this coming weekend are now facing further strike misery.
Only five Northern trains will run in either direction between Sunderland and Hartlepool on Saturday along the Newcastle-Middlesbrough Durham coast route.
Now the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union has confirmed that similar action will also be held on all five Saturdays in September.
The union, which had already scheduled strikes for September 1 and 8, has now earmarked September 15, 22 and 29 for disruption as the bitter dispute over staff and passenger safety escalates.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash accused Northern’s owners, Arriva Rail North, from pulling back from meaningful talks and added: “German-owned Northern Rail want to run nearly half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board, in a move that would wreck both safety and access to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately.”
Richard Allan, deputy managing director at Northern, questioned why more strikes had been called only a week after the union had agreed to talks with mediation service ACAS.
He added: “We’re trying to fix this dispute. Since the RMT agreed to reconvene the joint steering committee meetings and ACAS mediated talks, we are in the midst of arranging dates to meet.
“We have again urged the union to suspend any planned strikes. Instead, they have chosen to strike on every Saturday in September.”
Other stations along the Newcastle-Middlesbrough route to be affected include Billingham, Seaton Carew and Seaham.
The first trains north on Saturday will leave Hartlepool and Sunderland at 7.30am and 7.56am respectively with the last services departing at 6.04pm and 6.29pm.
The first trains south will leave Sunderland and Hartlepool at 8.01am and 8.25am respectively, with the last services departing at 4.03pm and 4.28pm.
Metro and Grand Central trains using the same lines are not affected by Saturday’s action.
Full details of the emergency timetable can be found at www.northernrailway. co.uk/strike.
Further information is also available by contacting 0800 200 6060