Don’t travel on strike days, rail firms warn
COMMUTERS will be told not to travel by train next week as the entire network is expected to be crippled by the largest strike in more than 30 years.
Train operating companies are today expected to urge people to avoid all travel next Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, as services will be drastically reduced.
Network Rail plans to lay out a new schedule, with services cut by 80 per cent, and to announce that all journeys will have to be completed by 6.30pm.
Southeastern, one of Britain’s biggest rail operators, has already written to passengers asking them to avoid travelling on strike days because most of its routes and stations will be closed, while c2c will advise passengers to “only travel if necessary”.
Bosses at South Western were still having “live conversations” about their plans last night, but will most likely ask passengers to avoid travelling. Other operators are expected to make similar announcements.
It will force schools and hospitals to urgently assess how they can continue to operate, with the risk of a return to online lessons and the cancellation of non-emergency medical appointments.
Industry sources said last night that train companies were coming under substantial pressure from ministers to avoid putting out “do not travel” notices because Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, “doesn’t want to give in to the unions”.
They are being urged to keep services running wherever possible. However, sources said: “We will have to tell them [passengers] not to travel because if we have people turning up as normal to stations expecting to get on a train we will have a major problem.”
Union sources said that the entire network would have to be shut down during the strike for safety reasons. They described suggestions of even a
20 per cent service as “optimistic” and said it was “completely unsafe to run any trains” because of the number of safety-critical staff going on strike.
It comes as thousands more railway workers are to be balloted for strikes which could hit in July.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association has served notice to ballot more than 6,000 staff at Network Rail in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security. In the event of a yes vote, strike action could be held from July 25.
The Education Secretary has warned against a “default” return to remote learning during the strike, after The Daily Telegraph revealed that some head teachers had already started writing to parents telling them to keep their children at home for the week.
The strikes coincide with GCSE exams in history, physics and combined science and A-level exams in German, maths, religious studies, chemistry, geology, PE and Italian.
Court hearings could also be threatened by the action. The Ministry of Justice
said it had contingencies in place and that judges would be allowed to use remote hearings if necessary.
More than 40,000 workers are set to walk out on June 21, 23 and 25 in a dispute over pay and jobs but the disruption is likely to last all week. Another 10,000 London Underground workers will also strike on June 21.
Crucially, the majority of Network
Rail signallers have voted to strike, which will make this the most disruptive action since the last signallers’ strike in 1989.
The Department for Transport said: “We’ve urged the unions from the very start to get around the tables to agree a deal that’s fair for everyone, but they insist on… going straight to disruptive and damaging strikes.
“We will continue to put the safety of passengers first, running one of the safest networks in the world.”
RMT claims as many as 2,500 jobs are at risk at Network Rail and that workers have been subject to years of pay freezes at a time when inflation is approaching double digits.
It said it had not been able to secure a pay proposal with rail bosses that reflects the rising cost of living, nor a guarantee that they would avoid compulsory redundancies.
‘We’ve urged the unions to get round the table but they insist on going straight to damaging strikes’