UK set for rail travel chaos as RMT union votes for national strike - these lines will be affected

UK set for rail travel chaos as RMT union votes for national strike - these lines will be affected
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Anna Fox

By Anna Fox


Published: 25/05/2022

- 09:34

Updated: 14/02/2023

- 11:17

Railway workers are disputing pay, compulsory redundancies and safety concerns

The RMT union has announced railway workers at Network Rail and 15 train operating companies, have voted overwhelmingly in support of industrial strike action.

The strike action is fuelled by members of the RMT union who are disputing pay, working conditions, and 2,500 Network Rail Maintenance job cuts and reforms that the union believes will lead to the closure of various ticket offices.


Overall, 71 percent of those balloted took part in the vote with 89 percent voting in favour of strike action.

The proposed strikes could affect services across the UK, as the RMT Union is calling for a reversal in job cuts and a pay rise above the RPI inflation.

Passengers travelling via rail could face a summer of major disruption, as strikes are set to affect lines across the UK.

RMT union workers support industrial action which is set to disrupt train services across the country.
RMT union workers support industrial action which is set to disrupt train services across the country.
PA

RMT workers at the following companies have voted in favour of the strike action and action short of strike:

  • Network Rail
  • Chiltern Railways,
  • Cross Country 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

Railway passengers could face delays and cancellations if the strikes go ahead in June.
Railway passengers could face delays and cancellations if the strikes go ahead in June.
James Manning

The RMT union announced its leaders will meet to discuss a timetable for the planned strike from mid-June.

Network Rail workers who maintain the railway, have not taken part in a national strike since 1994, have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.

If its staff partake in the planned strike action, passenger services, the movement of goods, food and fuel will be disrupted.

Passenger services could be minimised to approximately a fifth of the normal Monday to Friday timetable.

Mick Lynch, Secretary-General of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said to the Mirror that cuts in power, fuel shortages or empty shelves are a "realistic possibility".

Mr Lynch announced that walkouts could begin as soon as the middle of June and refrained to provide an end point to the industrial action.

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