Rail travellers from London to the West Midlands face two days of disruption this week as staff strike over rest day working payments.
Services on London Northwestern Railway (LNR) and West Midlands Trains (WMT) are set to be cancelled after staff unions failed to agree to an improved rest day working agreement with the Department for Transport.
Workers, including roster clerks and duty train crew managers in the TSSA rail union, will walk out at hours between 9 July and 11 July.
Strike action will start at midnight on Thursday and is scheduled to end at noon on Saturday.
LNR said: “A significantly reduced service will be in operation on the London Northwestern Railway network on both Friday 10 July and Saturday 11 July due to strike action by members of the TSSA union.
“Passengers should check their journeys before travelling on these dates.”
A limited service will operate on some routes on Friday, including hourly trains between Birmingham and Liverpool, between London Euston and Crewe, and between Birmingham and Milton Keynes.
No trains will run past 7pm, with final departures significantly earlier than usual scheduling.
The Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley, and the Stafford-Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent line, will have no service on 10 July.
On Saturday, limited LNR services will run from 7am.
LNR and WMT have offered customers a full refund for cancelled rail services, or tickets can be used on Thursday 9 July or Sunday 12 July.
This will be the second round of TSSA industrial action since May.
TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “These strikes will go ahead as planned because our members have not been given parity with those in other unions – a perfectly reasonable demand.
“As things stand, we face an intolerable situation. Our reps at West Midlands Trains have consulted the membership, and they remain determined to proceed with their legitimate action.
“The last round of industrial action caused a significant impact to services and the same will happen this time around. Of course, as ever, our union only takes strike action as a last resort, so we hope that our demands can be met in the coming days to avoid any more disruption.”
Jonny Wiseman, LNR customer experience director, said: “We are disappointed TSSA has called further unnecessary strike action which is set to cause significant disruption for our customers. We are working hard to reach a resolution to this dispute and urge TSSA to continue talks.”
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