8 January
UK rail strikes: commuters face week of chaos
Thousands of commuters face a week of travel chaos, with three days of strikes planned across five rail operators.
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Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at South Western Railway (SWR), Arriva Rail North (Northern), Merseyrail and Greater Anglia are staging 24-hour walkouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Sky News says.
The strikes, which will mainly affect services on SWR, “coincide with a 24-hour walkout by employees at Southern Rail on Monday”, reports the London Evening Standard.
SWR passengers are likely to be worst hit. The operator anticipates cancelling at least 450 trains a day - a quarter of its service. Greater Anglia says it plans to run a full service despite the disruption. Southern, today facing its 39th RMT strike, plans to run a normal service on most routes, although there will be some alterations, including a limited service on the West London Line during peak times.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said the dispute was not about safety and that employees had been guaranteed jobs and salaries for several years.
