Network Rail said there was “no real hope” of avoiding the biggest rail strike in 30 years next week, as it told passengers to plan ahead and only travel if necessary.
The full timetable will be announced on Friday, but operators such as Southern, Northern, TransPennine and Transport for Wales have already told passengers not to try to travel on strike days.
Network Rail has confirmed that large parts of Britain will not have passenger services on strike days, including locations such as Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, all of West or North Wales in Cardiff, and no passenger trains. which runs north from Glasgow or Edinburgh.
With reserve staff for signaling, around 20% of trains will run on main lines and urban areas on strike days -June 21, 23 and 25-, while services will start later in the morning, with close to 60% of the schedule in the following days. .
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines described the strike by 40,000 RMT workers as a “high-risk bet” on unions and said it would cost the industry £ 150 million and make it difficult to raise wages.
Haines said modernization proposals to increase security and productivity were finding “intransigence … even when terms and conditions are clearly anachronistic.”
He said talks would continue, but added: “We have not yet seen a movement that gives us real hope.”
The RMT called for direct talks with the government, saying it was “clear that the Treasury is calling the shots”.
Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, wrote to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to request an urgent meeting, saying: “Indeed, in recent weeks the union has been negotiating with the government, but the government has not been in the room. ”
The last meeting between unions and the government was with Railroad Minister Wendy Morton in March.
Labor accused the government of being “out of duty” for failing to hold talks to resolve the strike. Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said it was “frankly extraordinary” and wrote to Shapps asking him to call urgent talks.
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The number of passenger services during the strike days is expected to be limited to about 4,500 compared to the usual 20,000.
The last services between London and Scotland will leave at 2pm, while most long-distance trains in England will definitely leave in the mid-afternoon.
Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “These strikes will affect millions of people who use the train every day, including key workers, students with exams, and those who cannot home, holidaymakers and attendees.important business and leisure events.
“Working with Network Rail, our plan is to keep as many services as possible up and running, but a major disruption will be inevitable and some parts of the network will be out of service, so passengers should plan their trips carefully and check train schedules “.