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Rail strikes: Just 20% of Britain's services will be running when staff walk out - here's what you need to know about disruptions

The strikes taking place this week will see varying impacts on rail lines, with passengers facing severe disruptions to journeys.

By Olive Enokido-Lineham and Alexa Phillips, news reporters

Thursday 23 June 2022 08:06, UK

With just one in five trains running the rail strikes are expected to cause problems for thousands of people - here's what you need to know about disruptions.

The stoppages are the result of the failure to reach an agreement over pay, jobs and conditions.

Here's what you need to know - and how disruptions may affect your journey.

The rail strikes are the biggest in decades.

The first day of industrial action took place on Tuesday, with further strikes taking place on Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June in a dispute over pay and redundancies.

The RMT and Unite unions also took part in industrial action that affected the London Underground on Tuesday.

Network Rail has warned that the strikes will cause six days of disruption because of the knock-on effect on services on the days in between.

Why are they happening?

The RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said thousands of jobs were being cut across the rail networks and workers were facing below-inflation pay rises.

He said: "It has to be restated that the source of these disputes is the decision by the Tory government to cut £4bn of funding from our transport systems - £2bn from National Rail and £2bn from Transport for London."

What does the government say?

The government has urged the unions to scrap the action.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Strikes should always be the last resort, not the first, so it is hugely disappointing and premature that the RMT is going ahead with industrial action.

"The government committed £16bn - to keep our railways running throughout the pandemic while ensuring not a single worker lost their job.

"The railway is still on life support, with passenger numbers 25% down and anything that drives away even more of them risks killing services and jobs."

Will any train services be running?

The action by tens of thousands of rail workers will affect millions of commuters and cripple services for most of the week.

Only around half of Britain's rail network will be open on strike days, with around 20% of services running on lines, according to Network Rail.

Lines will only be open from 7.30am to 6.30pm, meaning trains will start later and finish earlier than usual.

On days between the strikes - 22 and 26 June - 60% of services will run.

A special timetable for 20 to 26 June has been published.

Can I get a refund?

"If your service has been cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, you will be entitled to a change or refund from the original retailer of your ticket," Network Rail says - but adds that an admin fee of "no more than £10 may apply".

You are entitled to a full refund if your train was cancelled - it does not matter what type of ticket you bought, according to Citizens Advice.

The amount you can claim for a delay depends on the type of ticket you bought.

Most rail companies are part of a scheme called Delay Repay, which will legally entitle you to 25% of the cost of a single journey if you are delayed by 15 to 29 minutes.

You will be eligible for 50% of your ticket price if you get to your destination between 30 minutes and an hour late, and a full refund if you arrive more than an hour late.

The government said season ticket holders will be able to claim full refunds on strike days - a more generous scheme than usual.

Can I change my ticket times?

If you have a ticket for travel on any of the strike days (21, 23 or 25 June) you can use this ticket either on the day before the date on the ticket or through and including the Monday and Tuesday of the following week, Network Rail says. This does not apply to season tickets.

Check with your travel provider as they may allow you to use your ticket on another company or an alternative route.

Here is a breakdown of what is happening on different lines this week.

Transport for London

Though the industrial action affecting the London Underground has already taken place this week, Transport for London has warned national rail strikes are expected to impact services on the Elizabeth line and London Overground services, and some Tube services, on strike days and until mid-morning on the days after the walkouts.

There will be a reduced service on the London Overground and Elizabeth line (where TfL uses national rail assets) as well as parts of the Tube on strike days.

London Overground services will run a reduced service from 7.30am on strike days and customers are advised to complete journeys by 6pm.

Disruption is likely to follow the strikes on parts of the Tube, Elizabeth line and London Overground on Friday 24 and Sunday 26 June, TfL said.

Avanti West Coast

A "significantly reduced timetable" will be in place on the strike days. Services from London Euston will run every hour to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston.

North Wales, Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Edinburgh have no Avanti West Coast services on strike days.

Trains will not be calling at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent or Runcorn, and these stations will be closed.

Customers with existing tickets for travel from Tuesday to Sunday can claim a full refund with further sales suspended to "help reduce disruption and overcrowding".

It will operate less than a third of normal services between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

This will include two trains per hour from London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Laindon, and the same frequency from London Fenchurch Street to Pitsea via Rainham. No trains will run via Ockendon or Chafford Hundred.

East Midlands Railway

Services will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm, with no direct trains between Luton and London St Pancras on Saturday and Sunday. Just one train per hour will run in each direction on most routes.

West Midlands Railway

A number of services will not be running during the week. Strike days will see a "very limited service", as will Wednesday and Friday.

Great Northern

No more than two trains per hour will run between King's Cross to Ely, Cambridge, Peterborough, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage via Hertford North. On strike days, the last trains will finish in the afternoon.

London North Eastern Railway

Around 38% of its usual trains will be running, which are likely to be very busy. The last train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh is at 2pm, while the final service to Leeds will depart at 3.05pm. The last train from Edinburgh to London is at 12.30pm, with the final departure from Leeds at 3.45pm.

London Northwestern Railway

Just two trains per hour between London Euston and Northampton, and one per hour between Birmingham New Street and Northampton. No trains will operate between London Euston and Crewe.

Great Western Railway

A number of services will not be running on strike days, including all those in Cornwall and Devon and on South Wales main line, Heart of Wessex line, Severn Beach line, North Cotswolds line and South Cotswolds line.

On Saturday, Greenford branch line services will not run.

There will be an "extremely limited service" on other routes, which will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Greater Anglia

A much reduced service on London routes will be running, with no regional or branch lines trains and no rail replacement buses. No more than two trains per hour will run into the capital, starting from 7.30am and finishing by 6.30pm.

Services will not be operating on most routes, with a "very limited" number of trains on the few running lines, including those from Leeds.

South Western Railway

A "severely limited service" will run between 7.15am and 6.30pm on strike days, and only on some routes. This includes only four trains per hour between London Waterloo and Woking, and two per hour between London Waterloo and Basingstoke.

Southeastern

Most stations and routes will be closed and a "severely reduced" service will run on strike days. Where trains are not running, people will be unable to travel.

Many stations and routes will be closed, with just two trains running per hour from London Bridge and London Victoria to southeast London and the coast. Services will run on the Brighton Mainline to London Bridge and London Victoria, with additional trains from Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Sutton and West Croydon, via Crystal Palace.

Gatwick Express

No service on strike days. A Sunday service will run on the days after the strikes, beginning after 7.15am and finishing early.

Heathrow Express

Services will be "significantly affected" during the week, with a half hourly service operating between 7.30am and 6.30pm on strike days.

Stansted Express

A reduced frequency will be in place, with later first trains and earlier last trains. There will be two trains an hour, with no services running from Stansted Airport to Norwich and Cambridge.

Generally two trains per hour will run both north and south. There will be far fewer trains than normal on strike days, with nothing running between London St Pancras and London Bridge.

TransPennine Express

Most services will see a "significant reduction" of trains. Yarm, Scarborough, Seamer, Malton, Selby, Brough and Hull stations will be completely closed with no services calling there on strike days. There will also be significant disruption on Wednesday and Friday.

No trains will run north of Glasgow or Edinburgh on strike days. Just two trains per hour will run between the cities via Falkirk. They will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

CrossCountry

No services will run from Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport across the three days.

A "very limited service" is to run between Bristol Parkway and Plymouth and Birmingham New Street and Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley.

Just one train per hour is to run between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, Leicester, Leeds and York and Reading. It warned of the possibility of last minute changes to the timetable.

There will be "some disruption" to services throughout the week, but as many as possible will run.

There will be no train services and no rail replacement buses on strike days.

Chiltern Railways

Across the three days no trains will run north of Banbury, to Oxford, or to Aylesbury via Amersham. One train an hour each way will run to Banbury, Aylesbury via High Wycombe and between Aylesbury and Amersham.

The service will start from around 7.30am, with morning trains not arriving in London until after 9am. The final train from the capital will leave at 4.45pm.

Caledonian Sleeper

All departures are cancelled between Monday and Friday.

Grand Central

In most cases just three trains in each direction will be running on strike days. Although there is a full timetable planned on the other days, some services have been cancelled or will start later.

Transport for Wales

On Thursday a reduced service will run between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil, with replacement bus services between Radyr and Cardiff Central.

There will be a reduced service between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Pontypridd, with replacement buses in operation between Radyr and Cardiff Central on Saturday. All other services will be suspended.

Hull Trains

On strike days, trains will only run between Doncaster and London King's Cross. Services on either side of the strike days will also be affected.

It has announced that a planned strike on Sunday 26 June has been called off after "reaching an agreement" with Aslef, adding that talks are continuing.

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Six days of travel disruption start in the UK

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Philip Georgiadis and Jim Pickard in London

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Britons faced six days of travel misery on Tuesday as the rail network ground to a halt because of strikes. Four days of industrial action this week will leave just 20 per cent of services running on strike days, as the RMT and TSSA unions walk out in disputes over pay rises, job security and changes to working practices. Passengers have been urged not to try to travel unless necessary on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Knock-on disruption will follow on Thursday and Sunday mornings.

Labour unrest on the railways, which started over the summer, has spread to other sectors with workers, including nurses, ambulance drivers, postal workers, Border Force officers and Highways Agency staff walking out this month as the UK is hit by the worst industrial unrest in more than three decades.

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The rail strikes this week are the start of a month of rail disruption. Network Rail, the infrastructure operator, has warned of reduced service and some disruption every day until January 8, including services affected by the annual pre-planned Christmas engineering work. There will also be another near shutdown of the network in the first week of the new year.

The most significant action will come from the RMT, which has 40,000 members and is embroiled in two separate disputes with Network Rail and 14 train operating companies.

RMT leader Mick Lynch on Tuesday said there was no deal “in sight”, but said he hoped new talks with industry could help “develop proposals our members can support”. On Monday, RMT members voted to reject a pay and reform package from Network Rail. Union leaders had urged members to reject the 9 per cent pay rise over two years, with more for lower-paid staff, which was tied to big changes to working practices. Lynch said the rejection of a “substandard offer” showed that members “are determined to take further strike action in pursuit of a negotiated settlement”.

He added that support for the strikes remained high among his members. “Our members are standing by the call and they are prepared to take action until we get a settlement that they can agree to. We haven’t got that at the moment and we will continue with our campaign until our members say they are ready to settle,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.

But some railway executives were privately buoyed by the relatively close result on Monday, in which 63.6 per cent voted against the offer.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said the RMT’s leadership “needs to think long and hard about what to do next”. The TSSA union has urged members to accept a similar deal, with a result expected in the coming days, while on Monday Unite members backed their own deal.

The RMT and TSSA are still also in separate disputes with the train operators, which appear harder to resolve. The industry has offered an 8 per cent rise, tied to some big workplace reforms.

Last week, the Financial Times reported that ministers had prevented the industry from offering unions higher pay deals and added tough new conditions at the last minute. Ministers quashed proposals for a higher 10 per cent two-year deal because they feared the inflationary impact.

The government has said that, while it sets the parameters of talks and is the railway’s financial guarantor, it does not involve itself in the minutiae of the negotiations.

When asked about the FT report on Tuesday morning, transport secretary Mark Harper insisted that detailed negotiations were “between the trade unions and the companies”.

“I think most people looking at those offers will think they are fair and reasonable offers.”

Harper also told GB News that the unions were losing public sympathy. “I think the tide is turning on people seeing that the offers we have made are reasonable, taking into account both the travelling public but also the interests of taxpayers.”

The Port of Felixstowe, the UK’s biggest container port which has been hit by strikes this year, said on Tuesday that workers had voted to accept a pay deal of 8.5 per cent, plus £1,000, from January.

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Day of disruption to cross-border trains after fallen tree damages cables

Network rail said it was aiming to reopen the line at 10.30pm., article bookmarked.

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Cross-border train services linking Edinburgh and Glasgow with Carlisle were severely disrupted on Thursday after a tree fell onto overhead cables in Dumfries and Galloway.

Damage to overhead wiring at Beattock, between Lockerbie and Carstairs on the West Coast Main Line , saw services between Motherwell and Carlisle cancelled or revised.

Rail operators warned travellers of disruption to services, with Avanti West Coast advising passengers not to travel north of Preston , and TransPennine Express advising passengers to delay journeys until Friday.

In a statement, National Rail said: “An object caught on the overhead electric wires between Lockerbie and Carstairs means that all lines are currently closed.

“As a result, trains between Carlisle and Glasgow Central / Edinburgh may be cancelled or revised.

“Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.”

Network Rail Scotland shared news of the incident in a post on X (formerly Twitter) at 8.39am, which read: “A tree has fallen on the overhead wires at Beattock on the West Coast Main Line between Motherwell and Carlisle, damaging them.

“Engineers are arriving now to assess the damage. More info soon.”

Subsequent posts confirmed that chainsaws were being used to remove the fallen tree and that work was underway to repair the wiring.

The work was initially expected to be completed by 9.30pm on Thursday, but as at 7.55pm this had been delayed to 10.30pm.

In a statement, Avanti West Coast said: “Avanti West Coast are advising do not travel north of Preston. No further coaches are available from Preston, Carlisle and Glasgow Central.

“Customers who choose not to travel due to today’s disruption north of Preston can use their ticket dated for travel today, Thursday September 26 to travel tomorrow, Friday September 27, at no extra cost.

“Alternatively, customers can claim a full refund from their point of purchase or, if you travel today and your journey is delayed by 15 minutes or more, you can claim delay repay compensation through the operator that you travelled with.

“You may use your ticket on the following services at no extra cost: LNER between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh; TransPennine Express via any reasonable route; ScotRail between Glasgow Central and Edinburgh; CrossCountry between Birmingham New Street and Edinburgh.”

A statement from TransPennine Express said: “Customers with tickets dated today, Thursday September 26, are strongly advised to defer travel where possible until tomorrow, Friday September 27. You may do this at no extra cost.

“You may use your ticket on the following services at no extra cost:

“CrossCountry services from Glasgow and Edinburgh towards Leeds and change here for TransPennine Express services to Manchester stations.

“LNER services from Edinburgh towards York and change here for TransPennine Express services to Manchester stations.

“Northern services between Preston and Manchester Airport, Preston and Liverpool Lime Street and between Newcastle and Carlisle.

“ScotRail services between Glasgow and Edinburgh where onward connections can be made.

“Customers are advised that coaches have been requested to operate from Carlisle towards Glasgow and Edinburgh, however, road transport is currently extremely limited.”

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