Don't even try taking a train next week, says Network Rail

Don’t travel by train unless you absolutely need to, was the advice given on Wednesday ahead of record-large railway strikes next week, with around half of all routes set to be shuttered on three separate days.

The state-owned infrastructure operator Network Rail added that passengers should not expect anything resembling a normal level of service on the routes set to remain open.

Workers across the network, in the employ of both Network Rail and the rail operators themselves, are set to walk out on 21, 23 and 25 June.

Around 4,500 services are expected to be timetabled for the six days from 20 June, compared to the 20,000 that would usually run.

On the ‘non-strike days’ between the days of confirmed action, Network Rail warned that only around 60% of usually-scheduled services would run, given that both trains and crew would be displaced as a result of the strikes.

More than 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT) will take part in the action against Network Rail and 13 train operating companies, after talks over job losses and pay collapsed.

RMT members on London Underground will also walk out on the first day of the rail strike - 21 June - over a separate dispute with Transport for London, creating even more transport havoc in the capital.

According to the RMT, Network Rail was planning to slash around 2,500 jobs in a bid to save £2bn in spending in the wake of the pandemic-induced collapse in regular passenger demand.

On top of the RMT strikes on the railways and the tube, train drivers will be walking out at three operations over further pay disputes.

Members of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) will strike at FirstGroup’s Hull Trains on 25 June, and on Greater Anglia - part-owned by the Dutch state railway Nederlandse Spoorwegen - on 23 June.

Tram driver members of ASLEF will also walk out of work at FirstGroup’s London Tram Operations - which runs trams in south London for TfL - on 28 and 29 June, and 13 and 14 July.

Train operators set to be affected by next week’s strikes:

- Avanti West Coast - owned by London-listed FirstGroup and Italian state-owned Trenitalia
- Chiltern Railways - owned by German state-owned Deutsche Bahn
- CrossCountry Trains - owned by Deutsche Bahn
- c2c - owned by Trenitalia
- East Midlands Railway - owned by Dutch state-owned Nederlandse Spoorwegen
- Great Western Railway - owned by FirstGroup
- LNER - owned by the UK state through the Department for Transport
- Northern Trains - UK state-owned through the DfT
- Southeastern - UK state-owned through the DfT
- South Western Railway - owned by FirstGroup and majority Chinese state-owned MTR Corporation
- TransPennine Express - owned by FirstGroup
- West Midlands Trains - a joint venture of Dutch state-owned Nederlandse Spoorwegen, and the Tokyo-traded JR East and Mitsui

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.