Rail workers start strike in dispute over guards

Workers at five rail companies are staging a fresh wave of strikes in the disputes over the role of guards, causing disruption to services in the first full week back to work after the festive break.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out today, Wednesday and Friday on South Western Railway (SWR), Arriva Rail North (Northern), Merseyrail and Greater Anglia, and today on Southern.

Talks were held between the union and SWR and Arriva.

However, they ended without any breakthrough to the long-running row over staffing, driver-only operation and guards.

Northern said it would run around 1,350 services on strike days, more than half its normal timetable, with most running between 7am and 7pm.