Train strikes: Why are this week’s rail walkouts happening?

Rail passengers face yet more disruption to their train journeys this week. Three consecutive days – 18, 19 and 20 August – will be affected by strikes on the railway network, with two impacting UK-wide services and one predominantly the London transport network.

But why are the strikes happening, and what have unions, rail companies and government said about the disruption?

18 and 20 August: Who is going on strike?

The most significant industrial action involves around 40,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), who work for Network Rail and 14 train operators – incuding Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, GTR (including Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and the Gatwick Express), GWR, LNER, Northern, Southeastern and South Western Railway.

The workers comprises a wide range of employees from cleaners and station staff to signallers and guards. They walked out in the first national rail strike for three decades on 21, 23 and 25 June, and will do so again on 18 and 20 August strikes now following after they failed to reach an agreement with employers on job security, pay and working conditions.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch says: “The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute will not simply vanish. They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and provides good conditions at work.

“Recent proposals from Network Rail fell well short on pay and on safety around maintenance work. We remain open for talks, but we will continue our campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement.”

Added strike action is being taken by 2,500 members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), mainly railway controllers, who will walk out 02:01 on Thursday 18 August to 01:59 on Friday 19 August and again from 02:01 on Saturday 20 August to 01:59 on Sunday 21 August, causing further disruption on top of the RMT’s widely impactful strike.

The TSSA union says: “At present there has not been any changes/improvements to the current pay offer for General Grades and Controllers from Network Rail. Suitable assurances from the company have not been received on job security or that proposed changes will not adversely affect our members.”

When are they striking?

Let’s deal with the RMT strikes first – because they will have by far the most wide-ranging effects across all three nations of Great Britain. (Northern Ireland will be unaffected, as will the Isle of Wight.)

Their first strike will hit train travellers on Thursday 18 August. The strikes will impact some services late on the evenings before each strike day, and earlier services on the mornings after.

The second will hit on Saturday 20 August, with services again affected the evening before and the morning after. Many rail companies are choosing to run a reduced schedule, with trains running only between 7am and 6pm, and a few services running just hourly, while others will run no services at all or close off certain branches of their network.

What effect will the RMT strikes have?

The network will not shut down completely. but most trains will be cancelled across England, Wales and Scotland.

At Network Rail, the infrastructure provider, the most critical roles in the day-to-day running of the railway are .the signallers who are walking out. June’s strikes led to around one fifth of the country’s train services running, with many attached delays and disruptions.

Train operators are currently bidding to run some services, as they did on the previous strike days. On all lines that are running, there will be strict limits on the amount of traffic replacement signallers could handle.

Which trains could run?

Avanti West Coast is planning to run a heavily reduced service on 18 and 20 August: between 8am and mid-afternoon, one hourly service is scheduled to run from Euston to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Preston, with a limited service on to Glasgow. Avanti is advising all customers against non-essential train travel.

C2C trains is expecting to run around a third of normal services, with trains running between 7.30am and 6.30pm only and two trains per hour from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness and Pitsea.

On Chiltern Railway, no trains will run north of Banbury, and services will only run from 8am-5pm. Two hourly services will run from London Marylebone to Oxford Parkway, Banbury and Aylesbury, with the same number between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Amersham. On Friday 19, no trains will run on the Marylebone – Amersham – Aylesbury Vale Parkway route. On Saturday 20, there will be no trains north of High Wycombe.

On CrossCountry, Thursday 18 will see trains run between Bristol Temple Meads and Edinburgh, Southampton Central and Manchester Piccadilly, and Birmingham New Street and Leicester. Expect an extremely limited service on other lines. On Saturday 20 trains will only run between Derby and Edinburgh and Southampton Central and Manchester Piccadilly.

On Thursday, East Midlands is planning to operate one train per hour between Nottingham and London and Sheffield and London on strike days, only between 7.30am and 6.30pm. Hourly services will also run between Derby and Matlock, Derby and Nottingham and Leicester and Nottingham. On Saturday, there will be one train per hour between London-Nottingham and Sheffield. There will also be one train per hour from Derby to Matlock and Derby to Nottingham, but no other services.

All Gatwick Express services are cancelled on the 18 and 20 August.

Heathrow Express will run only between 7.30am and 6.10pm on the two strike days, and only from 7.30am on Friday 19.

Only three train services are expected on Grand Central on Thursday, between Wakefield and Kings Cross stopping at Doncaster. It has not yet provided a timetable for Saturday.

On Great Northern, there will be two services an hour to Bedford and Luton from St Pancras International, and one an hour from London King’s Cross and Ely and Cambridge and Ely. Two journeys per hour are expected from King’s Cross to Peterborough, Welywn Garden City and Stevenage.

Much of Great Western Rail (GWR)’s network is wiped out on 18 and 20 August: no services will run in Cornwall, west of Newton Abbot, on any branches in Devon, or on the South Wales main line. On the Saturday, no services will run from Bristol to London Paddington, Cardiff to Bath, Bristol to Gloucester or Bristol to Exeter.

Hull Trains is only operating services between King’s Cross to Doncaster between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

The Isle of Wight’s Island Line will run as normal.

LNER will operate two trains an hour between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh and one per hour between London and Leeds on both 18 and 20 August.

London Northwestern will run Birmingham to London Euston, and Birmingham to Crewe, from 7.30am to 6.10pm only.

Lumo is planning to run three trains per day from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh and vice versa, on strike days. Four per day will run on Friday 19.

Merseyrail is running an hourly service calling at selected stations only between 7.30 and 6.30pm only – no trains from Chester, Rock Ferry and Ellesmere Port or on the Hunts Cross line.

Northern is also sticking to 7.30am to 6.30pm on strike days, when an hourly service will run from Liverpool to Manchester, as well as Leeds to York, Ilkley, Skipton, Sheffield and Bradford.

On ScotRail two hourly trains will run from Edinburgh and Glasgow via Falkirk High, Helensburgh, Inverkeithing and Tweedbank; while one per hour is expected between Edinburgh and Glasgow via Shotts. Two per hour are expected from Glasgow to Hamilton and Lanark, and between Milngavie and Springburn. One hourly train will run from Glasgow Queen St to Larbert and Falkirk Grahamston – all services between 7.30 and 6.30 only.

South Western is planning to operate between 7:15am and 6:30pm, and only between London Waterloo and Woking, Basingstoke and Southampton, and London Waterloo and Windsor and Eaton Riverside.

On Southeastern a reduced frequency service will run between London Bridge and Sevenoaks. Limited services will also run from London Bridge-Dartford, with no trains east of Dartford or south of Sevenoaks. Trains will run from around 7.30 to 6pm.

On Southern and Thameslink, there’ll be two hourly trains between London Victoria and Brighton, calling at Clapham Junction, East Croydon and Gatwick Airport only. The same amount will run between London Bridge and Brighton, London Bridge and Gatwick Airport; and between London Bridge and Three Bridges. A limited service will operate on strike days between London Victoria and Sutton, Epsom Downs and West Croydon.

The TransPennine Express will see five departures from Preston to Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport throughout the day; as well as two between Newcastle and Edinburgh. One train per hour will run between Manchester Piccadilly and York, while five trains will run between Cleethorpes and Sheffield on both strike days, with most services operating between 7.30am and 5.10pm. Friday’s TPE services are also reduced.

Nearly all Transport for Wales services will shut down: there will be an “essential travel only” service between Cardiff Central and Treherbert, and an hourly service between Cardiff and Newport only.

On West Midlands, one train per hour will run Birmingham to Northampton and two per hour from Northampton to London Euston, and vice versa, most between the hours of 7.30am and 5.30pm. There will also be a skeleton service between Lichfield Trent Valley and Redditch as well as Bromsgrove, Birmingham New Street–Redditch and Birmingham New Street-Lichfield Trent Valley, Wolverhampton and Birmingham New Street, and Birmingham New Street and Crewe. It will also run a reduced timetable on 19 August.

Unrelated to the strikes, all Caledonian Sleeper train services are cancelled from Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 August. London’s Elizabeth Line is also expecting a reduced service on 18 and 20 August.

Will other days be affected?

Yes. The RMT industrial action is timed to affect services immediately before and after the strike day – particularly late trains on 17 August and 19 August, and early trains on 21 August.

The RMT action this week is designed to cause maximum disruption to leisure travel, particularly holidaymakers heading to coast and countryside – or home again.

Some rail operators involved in the Thursday and Saturday strikes are taking the opportunity to run a reduced service on non-strike day 19 August, the day in between.

19 August: Who is going on strike?

The Friday strike this week will see members of the RMT union working for the London Underground walk out for 24 hours, causing disruption on the 19 August and the evening and morning either side.

The RMT members will be joined by more than 1,000 TfL and London Underground (LU) workers who are part of the Unite union, who are walking out the same day. Overground workers employed by Arriva Rail London will stage a separate walkout on the same day.

Which parts of the London transport network will shut down?

It’s likely that much of the London transport network (Underground and Overground) will be out of action. Some 10,000 workers walked out during the June 2022 Tube strike, causing only a few services to run every 15-20 minutes and many lines closed entirely or part suspended. The Night Tube will not run on Friday overnight.

The Unite strikes are expected to cause further disruption to the London Underground, Croydon Tramlink, Victoria coach station, Dial-a-Ride and river services on Friday.

Buses in west and north west London and parts of Hertfordshire and Surrey will be affected. According to TfL, the strike will impact the following routes: 18, 33, 49, 65, 70, 71, 72, 85, 94, 105, 110, 116, 117, 148, 203, 211, 216, 220, 223, 224, 235, 258, 265, 266, 272, 281, 283, 290, 293, 371, 404, 406, 411, 418, 419, 423, 440, 465, 467, 470, 481, C1, E1, E3, H17, H22, H32, H37, H91, H98, K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, N9, N18, N33, N65, N72, N266 and S3.

What are the strikes about?

While each union has its own issues with each company, broadly the demands are summed up by Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, as:

They say there is plenty of money sloshing around in the rail industry, and that the government is preventing settlements with Network Rail and the train operators.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute will not simply vanish.

“They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and provides good conditions at work.

“Recent proposals from Network Rail fell well short on pay and on safety around maintenance work.

“And the train operating companies have not even made us a pay offer in recent negotiations.

“Now [transport secretary] Grant Shapps has abandoned his forlorn hopes for the job of prime minister, he can now get back to his day job and help sort this mess out.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said: “It’s clear union bosses are determined to cause as much misery as possible and derail an event the whole country is looking forward to.

“Our railway is in desperate need of modernisation to make it work better for passengers and be financially sustainable for the long term.

“I urge union bosses to reconsider this divisive action and instead work worth their employers, not against them, to agree a new way forward.

“The industry is already on life support and by insisting on working against its employers, instead of with them, the RMT risks pulling the plug for good.”

Of the Tube strike, the RMT Union said: “Tube workers have been locked in a dispute over attacks to pensions and jobs for over 6 months while Overground workers employed by Arriva Rail London will strike over pay. LUL and TfL management have consistently refused to engage in discussions around safeguarding jobs, pensions and conditions on the spurious grounds that they are unable to give any assurances to our members until they have a financial settlement with the government.”

Andy Lord, TfL’s chief operating officer, said:“I would like to apologise to our customers who will have their journeys impacted by these strikes. We’re urging people to avoid travelling on the Tube and only travel if essential on the rest of the network on 19 August, and to ensure they check before they travel from 18-21 August. If customers are travelling they should plan ahead and expect disruption across the network. Walking and cycling is likely to be the best way to get around during this action.

“We’re urging the RMT and Unite to call off these strikes – my message to them is that it’s not too late to work with us, Arriva Rail London and RATP to find a resolution and avoid the huge disruption this action will cause.”

Are other strikes on the horizon?

No dates have been announced for further rail industrial action beyond 20 August, and at least two weeks’ notice must be given of any strike.

Further Aslef ballots on industrial action close at Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry on Wednesday 27 July; and at Northern Trains; TransPennine Express; and Transport for Wales on Thursday 25 August.