A month of rail disruption will begin on Tuesday when workers walk out for their first of a wave of 48-hour strikes, as nurses prepare to take unprecedented industrial action later this week
Yesterday RMT members working for network rail rejected the latest pay offer from the rail Companies and will begin strike action today
Scheduled strike action will take place on 13,14,16 and 17 December and January 3,4,6 and 7 will involve Network Rail and the 14 train operating companies.
Only Network Rail is on strike from 6pm Christmas Eve until 6am December 27, specifically targeting engineering works.
Network rail are telling passengers to avoid travelling if possible
Only an extremely limited service – roughly only 20%of services – will operate between 07.30 and 18.30; first trains will start later, and the last trains will leave much earlier
Disruption should also be expected in the morning of the day after each strike – Thursday 15 and Sunday 18 December – as the railway recovers from the previous day’s strikes.
Meanwhile last-ditch talks to avert the nursing strike collapsed after Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, accused the Health Secretary Steve Barclay of “belligerence” and having “too little to say” after their first face-to-face meeting for a month yesterday
Nurses are set for strike action on the 15th and 20th of this month
