Priority for freight trains to keep supermarkets stocked

FREIGHT trains will get priority over passenger services under emergency plans to keep supermarkets stocked if UK rail strikes go ahead.

Last week, the Daily Mail revealed union plans for a ‘summer of discontent’, so rail firms plan to reserve tracks for goods trains, each carrying as much as 72 lorries.

A ballot of 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union closes on Tuesday. The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association is set to ballot 20,000 members and drivers’ union Aslef is also balloting. The unions want pay rises in line with inflation and Network Rail to ditch 2,500 job cuts.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will discuss the plans with the Prime Minister next week.

Mick Whelan, boss of Aslef, said: ‘How hard they dig their heels in or not will determine what happens in terms of strikes.’