Train strike news LIVE: Latest rail and TfL travel updates as RMT members at Network Rail and 14 operators walk out
Follow travel updates on MailOnline’s liveblog as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and 14 train operators go on strike:
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Shadow transport minister Sam Tarry joined striking workers on the picket line at London Euston station today, in defiance of Sir Keir Starmer’s orders to stay away.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘If we don’t make a stand today, people’s lives could be lost. Some of the lowest-paid workers are on strike today in the rail industry, safety critical workers, workers who make sure our railways get people to work and do so safely.
‘It can’t be accepted anymore, that people just have to accept that inflation is out of control. The Government’s doing nothing on the cost-of-living crisis.’
Asked whether he expected to be sacked by Sir Keir, Mr Tarry said: ‘I’ve no idea what Keir will decide to do but I know this – if Keir was in government right now, this dispute wouldn’t be happening.’
He added: ‘I have absolutely 100 per cent confidence that any Labour Party MP would be in support of striking workers who have given up a day’s pay, a week’s pay or even longer.’
'If we don't make a stand today, people's lives could be lost.'
Shadow Transport Minister Sam Tarry has joined the picket line as rail workers strike.
He explains why he joined the picket line after Sir Keir Starmer told GMB that Labour MPs should not take part. pic.twitter.com/PWwVWWeNNO
Passengers at London Waterloo have boarded one of the first trains of the day today, as limited services run in and out of the station until 6.30pm:
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps described union calls for him to join negotiations to resolve rail strikes as ‘a complete red herring’.
He told Sky News: ‘It’s just a game by the unions. It’s a complete red herring as well, by the way, and it’s simply not how strikes are resolved.
‘It can only ever be the employer, in this case Network Rail, the train operating companies and the unions.’
He went on: ‘We have to have this modernisation. It’s there to be sorted out and therefore a pay rise can be had as well, but I’m afraid the unions have been incredibly militant about this.’
'It's just a game by the unions'
Transport Sec @grantshapps says he will not step in to resolve railway strikes, even if they rumble on.https://t.co/D75zLWHQ9k
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/yFvfzWzQf2
Sitting outside Birmingham New Street station in the morning sunshine was Paul Lunt, and wife Maria Wright-Lunt – who is on her first visit to England from her native Finland.
They were waiting for a connecting train to Crewe, after a 12-hour train, plane and coach journey, from Lahti in Finland, via Helsinki and Stanstead airport.
Mr Lunt, who said the couple’s final destination is Liverpool, said the strike had not affected their plans and he supported those taking industrial action.
He said: ‘I can’t blame them with the prices of everything as they are, and everybody’s wants and needs.’
Mrs Wright-Lunt, who is a health worker in Finland, also supported the striking railway workers.
She said: ‘Yeah, I’m a nurse in Finland so I’m on their side. We’ve been dealing with the same thing for some time in Finland as well.’
The 20 per cent of services that are running on the National Rail network today have now begun, and will operate for the next 11 hours until 6.30pm.
Sam Tarry, the MP for Ilford South, is on the RMT picket line outside London Euston today – and told BBC Breakfast why he was defying calls from leader Keir Starmer not to do so:
'I'm here as Shadow Transport Minister backing transport workers who are on strike'
Labour's @SamTarry is on the @RMTUnion picket line today.
He spoke to #BBCBreakfast on why he's ignoring a call from leader Keir Starmer not to do sohttps://t.co/6fPS8IAnBB pic.twitter.com/2nw9pjQAog
Network Rail chairman Sir Peter Hendy – who is a former Transport for London commissioner – spoke on LBC Radio this morning, accusing rail union bosses of blocking a rail pay deal:
'We can't get the RMT leadership to put it to their members.'
Network Rail Chair Sir Peter Hendy accuses union bosses of blocking a rail pay deal that could have averted strikes.@NickFerrariLBC pic.twitter.com/An5k2zbgbX
At Birmingham New Street station, where passenger numbers are expected to increase with the Commonwealth Games starting tomorrow, there is a reduced list of departures during the strike action.
The boards showed the first train to London Euston station was not due to leave until 8.50am, and there were only a handful of passengers waiting on the main concourse. A picket of RMT workers stood outside the city’s distinctive signal box:
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) general secretary Manuel Cortes has also been talking about the strikes today, saying that the ‘dead hand of the government is behind this dispute’.
Members of the TSSA at Avanti West Coast are going on strike today, alongside the RMT strike across Network Rail and 14 operators.
“This is a smoke screen from @grantshapps – the dead hand of the government is behind this dispute.” @Manuel_TSSA live from picket lines #railstrikes pic.twitter.com/csvMQmwHgE
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Sky News has responded to claims from the unions that they ‘haven’t spoken to a minister for months’:
'The unions are saying they haven't spoken to a minister for months' – @KayBurley @grantshapps says "they don't need to speak to a minister", adding "we need to do more to remove the power" from "extreme left" unions.https://t.co/D75zLWHQ9k
📺 Sky 501 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/3afkTAw9wU
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has begun interviews with TV broadcasters this morning, telling BBC Breakfast outside London Euston station that the union has not yet had an ‘offer that suits the needs of the dispute’:
'We haven't got an offer that suits the needs of the dispute'
Some 40,000 workers at Network Rail and 14 train operators are on strike across the UK
Mick Lynch from the @RMTUnion spoke to #BBCBreakfasthttps://t.co/6fPS8IAnBB pic.twitter.com/gKa6E44yQi
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are on picket lines around the country today as they take part in a fresh strike over jobs, pay and conditions – including one in Bristol:
There will be a reduced service on the Elizabeth line today, so Transport for London is advising people to use the Piccadilly line instead which is operating a normal service.
The Heathrow Express will be running to and from Paddington, but only on a limited service from 7.30am until 6.30pm.
Here is the timetable for the Heathrow Express today:
From London Paddington : Services are departing at 10 and 40 minutes past the hour, first service will depart at 7.40am, last service will depart at 6.10pm
From Heathrow Terminal 5 : Services are departing at 27 and 57 minutes past the hour, first service will depart at 7.30am, last service will depart at 5.57pm
From Heathrow Central: Services are departing at 32 and 02 minutes past the hour, first service will depart at 7.35am, last service will depart at 6.02pm
Transport for London said there will be a reduced service on the Elizabeth line today as follows:
Western section
Paddington-Reading: 2 trains per hour
Paddington-Heathrow: 2 trains per hour
Services running 07:30-17:00
Complete your journey by 17:00
Central section
Abbey Wood-Paddington:
Before 17:00: 12 trains per hour
After 17:00: 6 trains per hour
Normal finish time
Eastern section
Liverpool Street-Shenfield:
2 trains per hour between 07:30-17:30
Complete your journey by 17:00
Trains will not stop at Goodmayes, Forest Gate, Manor Park and Maryland
The following Tube lines have problems this morning due to the train strike:
Bakerloo line: No service between Queen’s Park and Harrow & Wealdstone due to strike action by Network Rail. Good service on the rest of the line.
District line: Services between Parsons Green and Wimbledon, and between Turnham Green and Richmond, will only run between 7.30am and 6pm. Passengers are advised to complete their journeys by 5.30pm.
There are no problems on any other Underground lines due to strike action, although Transport for London said that the Circle line has minor delays this morning due to train cancellations.
There is no service on the London Overground between the following stations today due to strike action by Network Rail staff:
Barking to Barking Riverside
Surrey Quays to New Cross
Kilburn High Road to Euston
Romford to Upminster
Camden Road to Stratford
A significantly reduced service is running on the rest of the Overground, with trains only operating between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
Thameslink is among the operators running far fewer trains than normal. Services are being split north and south, with nothing running between London St Pancras and London Bridge.
Trains will only operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm today, and will start later than normal tomorrow. Here is a breakdown of each operator’s plan for today:
– Avanti West Coast
A limited service of around a quarter of the normal timetable will operate, with one train per hour in both directions between London Euston and each of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston. A reduced timetable will operate to Glasgow. Several areas will not be served, such as Blackpool, Edinburgh, North Wales and Shrewsbury.
– c2c
It will operate fewer than a third of normal services. These will consist of two trains per hour in each direction between London Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness via Laindon, and the same frequency between London Fenchurch Street and Pitsea via Rainham. No trains will run via Ockendon or Chafford Hundred.
– Caledonian Sleeper
All departures are cancelled for last night and tonight.
– Chiltern Railways
No trains will run north of Banbury or to/from Oxford station. There will be one train per hour in both directions between London Marylebone and each of Aylesbury via High Wycombe; Banbury; and Oxford Parkway. The same frequency will be in place between Aylesbury Vale Parkway and Amersham.
– CrossCountry
No direct services will run between Birmingham and Bristol, Cardiff, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport. A very limited service is planned between Birmingham and Edinburgh via Leeds, York and Newcastle; Leicester; Manchester; and Southampton.
– East Midlands Railway
Just one train per hour will run in each direction between London St Pancras and each of Corby, Nottingham and Sheffield; between Derby and both Matlock and Nottingham; and between Nottingham and both Leicester and Sheffield. All other routes will be closed.
– Gatwick Express
Services will be suspended. Passengers travelling to or from Gatwick Airport can use Southern and Thameslink trains.
– Grand Central
Just three trains in each direction will run between London King’s Cross and both Northallerton and Wakefield Kirkgate.
– Great Northern
There will be very few trains, with no services east of Ely to King’s Lynn.
– Great Western Railway
No services will run on many routes, such as all those in Cornwall, branch lines in Devon, between Cardiff and Swansea, and between Bath and Portsmouth.
– Greater Anglia
The company will not run any trains on its regional and branch lines. A very limited service will operate on some routes to and from London Liverpool Street.
– Heathrow Express
Trains will run every half an hour instead of every 15 minutes normally.
– Hull Trains
Trains will only run between Doncaster and London King’s Cross, with five in each direction.
– London North Eastern Railway
Only two trains per hour will operate between Edinburgh and London King’s Cross, and one per hour between Leeds and London King’s Cross, in both directions.
– London Northwestern Railway
A limited service will run to and from Birmingham New Street and both Crewe and London Euston. Other routes will be closed.
– Lumo
Just three trains will run in each direction between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, with two others doing part of the route.
– Merseyrail
An hourly service will call at selected stations.
– Northern
Passengers are urged ‘not to travel’ as only a small number of routes will have trains. Routes that will be open include Liverpool to Alderley Edge; York to Leeds; and Darlington to Saltburn.
– ScotRail
No trains will run north of Glasgow or Edinburgh. Just two trains per hour will run between the cities via Falkirk High and one per hour via Shotts, in each direction. There will also be two trains per hour on each of these routes: Edinburgh to Bathgate; Glasgow to Hamilton/Larkhall; and Glasgow to Lanark.
– South Western Railway
A ‘severely limited service’ will run, and only on some routes. This includes just four trains per hour between London Waterloo and both Windsor and Woking, and two per hour between London Waterloo and both Basingstoke and Southampton, in each direction.
– Southeastern
Many stations and routes will be closed, and a severely reduced service will operate elsewhere. There will be no services to or from London Victoria or Charing Cross. The vast majority of the network in Kent and East Sussex will be closed. The high-speed route to Ashford International will be open.
– Southern
Much of the network will be shut down. 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.
– Stansted Express
Train will run hourly between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport, instead of every 30 minutes. No services will run from Stansted Airport to Norwich and Cambridge.
– Thameslink
There will be far fewer trains than normal. Services will be split north and south, with nothing running between London St Pancras and London Bridge.
– TransPennine Express
There will only be a very limited service, with just these routes open: Manchester Airport to Preston; Manchester Piccadilly to York; Newcastle to Edinburgh; and Cleethorpes to Sheffield.
– Transport for Wales
Most lines will be closed. An hourly service will run between Cardiff and Newport, with limited trains elsewhere.
– West Midlands Railway
A limited service will operate only between Lichfield Trent Valley and Redditch/Bromsgrove via Birmingham New Street; Crewe and Birmingham New Street via Wolverhampton; and Birmingham New Street and Northampton.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef at eight train operators across the country will go on strike this Saturday.
Two further RMT strikes are set to take place on August 18 and 20 over job security, pay and working conditions.
The TSSA has also served notice for strikes across seven train operating companies on the same days in August, with strike action planned at Avanti West Coast, c2c, East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, Great Western Railway, LNER, and Southeastern trains.
Action short of strikes will be taken at West Midlands Trains, Northern, Greater Anglia, TransPennine Express and Southeastern.
With services not due to start until after 7.30am this morning, London St Pancras station was almost completely deserted today.
The first departure is due to be the 7.30am East Midlands Railway service to Sheffield, before a Eurostar service to Paris leaves one minute later.
The strike will affect passengers travelling for holidays or attending events such as the women’s Euro 2022 semi-final in Milton Keynes today, and the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham tomorrow.
Organisers of the Commonwealth Games have told attendees to check with their train operators if they are planning to travel by rail to Birmingham today or tomorrow, and advised looking into long distance coaches if trains are cancelled.
Network Rail expects a ‘very limited’ timetable will be available across the country on the strike day today, with around 20 per cent of services running and some parts of the country with no rail services.
Trains will start later and services will finish much earlier than usual, with passengers told to expect disruption and only travel if necessary.
Chiltern Railways will not be able to operate services on most routes today due to extremely limited availability of staff, and customers have been told to only travel if necessary on services such as Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway and Northern.
There is plenty of bad blood around as Network Rail has accused the RMT of ‘obstinacy’ and branded its action as a ‘political campaign’ while the Department for Transport said the union is ‘hell-bent on creating further misery for passengers across the UK’.
It added that the rail industry has to modernise and be brought into the 21st century for the benefit of passengers and staff.
In turn, Mr Lynch has said the RMT’s members are ‘more determined than ever’ to secure a decent pay rise, job security and good working conditions and they will not be bullied or cajoled.
He added that the Government needs to stop its interference in the dispute so the rail employers can come to a negotiated settlement.
Network Rail is introducing reforms. It comes as fewer passengers are travelling by train because of the pandemic, which has led to more people working from home.
They say a two-year, 8 per cent deal with a no-compulsory-redundancy guarantee and other benefits and extras was on the table but the RMT left the talks.
The RMT said there has been no change or improvement in the pay offers it has received and said the threat of compulsory redundancies and unsafe 50 per cent cuts to maintenance work had been raised.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said driver-only operations and the ‘ransacking’ of members’ terms and conditions had also been put on the table by the train operating companies.
Transport for London (TfL) said while the industrial action does not involve its staff, varying degrees of disruption are expected on the District and Bakerloo Tube lines, London Overground, and the Elizabeth line, which all share some sections of track with Network Rail.
The strike action will cause significant disruption to Elizabeth line services, with two trains per hour running on some lines.
On the London Overground, a reduced service will be in operation between 7.30am and 6.30pm, so passengers are advised to complete their journeys by 6pm.
Customers are being urged to check before they travel.
Passengers should also expect some disruption tomorrow morning, with a later start to services as signalling staff return to work.
Picket lines were being mounted outside train stations as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and 14 train operators go on strike.
The RMT has announced some picket line location details, with stations including Wembley between 5am and 5pm, Bristol Parkway between 7am and 1pm, and Penzance between 6am and 6pm.
The companies affected by the RMT strikes are: Network Rail, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains, Heathrow Express, Lumo, Hull Trains, Grand Central, Transport for Wales, ScotRail, Merseyrail, Thameslink, London Northwestern Railway, Caledonian Sleeper, Stansted Express, and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
There will be no Gatwick Express services and passengers should also expect significant disruption to Heathrow Express and Stansted Express services.
More than 40,000 workers at Network Rail and 14 train operating companies are striking in England today in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walked out, crippling rail services across the country.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) has also announced a strike by its members at Avanti West Coast today.
Network Rail pointed out that all train operators may be affected by the strike, whether they have an individual dispute with the RMT or not, as signallers control train movements across the entire country.
Good morning and welcome to MailOnline’s liveblog on the rail strikes today.
Passengers are suffering fresh travel chaos after thousands of workers walked out on strike, crippling services across Britain.
Disputes in the bitter row over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions are worsening, with more strikes in the coming days, and a wave of industrial action planned next month on the railways and London Underground.
Only around one in five trains will run today, on around half the network, with some areas having no trains all day.
Stay with us throughout today for all the latest updates.
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