More travel misery for passengers as strikes continue

RAIL PASSENGERS will suffer more travel misery because of a fresh wave of strikes in bitter disputes over staffing and driver only trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on Arriva Rail North will walk out for three days from Saturday. Merseyrail members will walk out today and Monday. Union members on Southern will stage a 24-hour strike on Monday, more than a year after taking their first industrial action against the company over changes to the role of guards.

Arriva North said it was planning to run 40 per cent of services on revised timetables from 7am to 7pm today and Monday, and from 9am to 5pm tomorrow. Most Merseyrail services are planned to run every half-hour from 7am to 7pm, although they will not stop at some stations.

Passengers were advised to check before they travel and warned that timetables could change during the industrial action. Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, managing director at Merseyrail, said: “The Merseyrail team has put together the best possible timetable that we can to provide a limited train service on both strike days. I would urge all our customers to check before they travel.”

Sharon Keith, regional director at Northern, said: “We are doing everything we can to keep our customers on the move during the three days of industrial action affecting our network.

“We will be running more than 40 per cent of our usual services, but those trains that do run will be on an amended timetable and are likely to be extremely busy. We ask our customers to plan carefully, allow extra time for travel and to consider whether their journeys are necessary.”

Frank Rogers, chief executive of Merseytravel, added: “While rail travellers will be most directly affected, other people travelling in and around the city region are likely to be impacted.”

Southern Railway services are currently being disrupted by an overtime ban by drivers in the Aslef union. A company spokesman said: “We don’t expect the RMT union’s strike to have any effect on our service on Monday, and we plan to run the amended timetable that’s in place during Aslef ’s driver overtime ban.”