5-day strike on the trains today

RAIL passengers on some of the country’s busiest routes are facing five days of strikes from today as the dispute over guards on trains continues.

Members of the RMT union on South Western Railway (SWR) will mount picket lines outside stations including London Waterloo – the busiest in Britain.

Almost a third of services will be cancelled between today and Friday, while half are expected to operate on Saturday. The RMT is also planning a series of 24hour strikes on Saturdays in November, which will hit tens of thousands of rugby fans travelling to and from Twickenham.

An SWR spokesman accused the RMT of ‘cynically targeting’ passengers and said it had guaranteed for a guard to be on board every single service’. The firm added that it was time for the union to ‘commit to resolving this dispute’.

But RMT general secretary Mick Cash insisted the dispute was about safety and preventing SWR from using a loophole that allows driver-only services.