Drivers of three more train companies will go on strike later this month, worsening the planned railway disruption.
Drivers working for Hull Trains, Greater Anglia and Croydon Tramlink have voted in favor of taking action in separate wage disputes, the Aslef union has announced.
Greater Anglia is the owner and operator of the Stansted Express, a direct service between the airport and London Liverpool Street, which means the strike could cause misery to tourists.
It comes as the RMT union says that up to 50,000 of its members via Network Rail, 13 train operators and the London Underground would leave in three days in June – the biggest outbreak of industrial rail action since 1989.
With a duration of three days, the strike threatens to “shut down the system”.
Talks between Network Rail and the union are expected to be held in the coming days, and the former will draw up contingency plans to try to alleviate the disruption of services.
Less than one in five trains are likely to run, and only between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., probably only on the main lines.
Most of the strike action will take place over a nine-day period in late June.
The first RMT outing is scheduled for June 21, 23 and 25. These strikes are expected to cause disruptions to services for six days.
Meanwhile, Aslef members on Hull Trains will strike on June 26, Greater England on June 23 and Croydon Tramlink on June 28 and 29, July 28, 13 and 14.
The third union could join the “summer of discontent”
Members of a third union, TSSA, could also join the strikes, further increasing the chaos of travel.
TSSA has notified the vote of hundreds of Avanti West Coast personnel in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security.
The strike on the train line could take place from July 13, if voted by the 300 union members.
TSSA Secretary General Manuel Cortés said: “We could be seeing a summer of discontent on our railways.
“Make no mistake, we are preparing for all options, including the coordinated strike. And if our partners strike Avanti, the trains will stop running.”
Avanti operates passenger train services and stations ranging from London Euston to Birmingham, Crewe, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow.
Box offices that “barely sell one ticket a week”
Image: Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke today in Blackpool
Speaking in Blackpool today, the Prime Minister said that “the time has come” to close inefficient train ticket offices across the UK and replace them with automated systems as part of reducing transport costs.
“We are on your side to reduce transportation costs, not just with the fantastic investments we are making,” Boris Johnson said.
“It’s time to dump her and move on. It’s time to dump her and move on.
“There are fully manned lockers in this country that barely sell one ticket a week.”
Read more: Which train lines and major events will be affected? Why the RMT has now chosen a pay-per-view fight – Ian King’s analysis
He described the closure of the London Underground box office in favor of the automatic issuance of tickets under his tenure as mayor of London as “initially painful”, but added: “We have successfully argued that the staff was better and more productive deployed on platforms that interacted with the public.
“It’s time to dump her and move on.”
The work shows support for railway workers
Today, Shadow Secretary Lisa Nandy said she supports railroad workers but has not given direct support to the planned strike action.
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4:10 Passengers get ready for the railroad strikes
“I was with our railway workers in the same way that I was with the young doctors when they protested against the treatment that the government was giving them, and also our nurses,” he told ITV.
“The way to create good public services is not to attack the people who run those services, it’s not to attack those people who work day in and day out to try to keep them running; the way to do that is by supporting them.”