Train strikes: Why are this week’s rail walkouts happening and who will be affected?

Rail passengers face yet more disruption to their train journeys this week. Three consecutive days – 18, 19 and 20 August – will be affected by strikes on the railway network, with two impacting UK-wide services and one predominantly the London transport network.

But why are the strikes happening, and what have unions, rail companies and government said about the disruption?

The most significant industrial action involves around 40,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), who work for Network Rail and 14 train operators – incuding Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, GTR (including Thameslink, Southern, Great Northern and the Gatwick Express), GWR, LNER, Northern, Southeastern and South Western Railway.

The workers comprises a wide range of employees from cleaners and station staff to signallers and guards. They walked out in the first national rail strike for three decades on 21, 23 and 25 June, and will do so again on 18 and 20 August strikes now following after they failed to reach an agreement with employers on job security, pay and working conditions.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch says: “The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute will not simply vanish. They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and provides good conditions at work.

“Recent proposals from Network Rail fell well short on pay and on safety around maintenance work. We remain open for talks, but we will continue our campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement.”

Added strike action is being taken by 2,500 members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), mainly railway controllers, who will walk out 02:01 on Thursday 18 August to 01:59 on Friday 19 August and again from 02:01 on Saturday 20 August to 01:59 on Sunday 21 August, causing further disruption on top of the RMT’s widely impactful strike.

The TSSA union says: “At present there has not been any changes/improvements to the current pay offer for General Grades and Controllers from Network Rail. Suitable assurances from the company have not been received on job security or that proposed changes will not adversely affect our members.”

Let’s deal with the RMT strikes first – because they will have by far the most wide-ranging effects across all three nations of Great Britain. (Northern Ireland will be unaffected, as will the Isle of Wight.)

Their first strike will hit train travellers on Thursday 18 August. The strikes will impact some services late on the evenings before each strike day, and earlier services on the mornings after.

The second will hit on Saturday 20 August, with services again affected the evening before and the morning after. Many rail companies are choosing to run a reduced schedule, with trains running only between 7am and 6pm, and a few services running just hourly, while others will run no services at all or close off certain branches of their network.

The network will not shut down completely. but most trains will be cancelled across England, Wales and Scotland.

At Network Rail, the infrastructure provider, the most critical roles in the day-to-day running of the railway are .the signallers who are walking out. June’s strikes led to around one fifth of the country’s train services running, with many attached delays and disruptions.

Train operators are currently bidding to run some services, as they did on the previous strike days. On all lines that are running, there will be strict limits on the amount of traffic replacement signallers could handle.

Each rail operator has published individual details for the strike days - either of a heavily reduced timetable, or cancelling all services entirely. Some operators, such as GWR, have published details of whole branches and stations that will be cut off by the strikes.

CrossCountry, East Midlands, LNER and Southern are among the rail companies operating a reduced, but still running schedule. Meanwhile services such as the Gatwick Express are cancelled all day on 18 and 20 August.

Read a company by company breakdown of the services expected to run on the RMT strike days here.

Unrelated to the strikes, all Caledonian Sleeper train services are cancelled from Wednesday 17 to Friday 19 August. London’s Elizabeth Line is also expecting a reduced service on 18 and 20 August.

Yes. The RMT industrial action is timed to affect services immediately before and after the strike day – particularly late trains on 17 August and 19 August, and early trains on 21 August.

The RMT action this week is designed to cause maximum disruption to leisure travel, particularly holidaymakers heading to coast and countryside – or home again.

Some rail operators involved in the Thursday and Saturday strikes are taking the opportunity to run a reduced service on non-strike day 19 August, the day in between.

The Friday strike this week will see members of the RMT union working for the London Underground walk out for 24 hours, causing disruption on the 19 August and the evening and morning either side.

The RMT members will be joined by more than 1,000 TfL and London Underground (LU) workers who are part of the Unite union, who are walking out the same day. Overground workers employed by Arriva Rail London will stage a separate walkout on the same day.

It’s likely that much of the London transport network (Underground and Overground) will be out of action. Some 10,000 workers walked out during the June 2022 Tube strike, causing only a few services to run every 15-20 minutes and many lines closed entirely or part suspended. The Night Tube will not run on Friday overnight.

The Unite strikes are expected to cause further disruption to the London Underground, Croydon Tramlink, Victoria coach station, Dial-a-Ride and river services on Friday.

Buses in west and north west London and parts of Hertfordshire and Surrey will also be affected.

While each union has its own issues with each company, broadly the demands are summed up by Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, as:

They say there is plenty of money sloshing around in the rail industry, and that the government is preventing settlements with Network Rail and the train operators.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute will not simply vanish.

“They need to get serious about providing an offer on pay which helps deal with the cost-of-living crisis, job security for our members and provides good conditions at work.

“Recent proposals from Network Rail fell well short on pay and on safety around maintenance work.

“And the train operating companies have not even made us a pay offer in recent negotiations.

“Now [transport secretary] Grant Shapps has abandoned his forlorn hopes for the job of prime minister, he can now get back to his day job and help sort this mess out.”

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has said: “It’s clear union bosses are determined to cause as much misery as possible and derail an event the whole country is looking forward to.

“Our railway is in desperate need of modernisation to make it work better for passengers and be financially sustainable for the long term.

“I urge union bosses to reconsider this divisive action and instead work worth their employers, not against them, to agree a new way forward.

“The industry is already on life support and by insisting on working against its employers, instead of with them, the RMT risks pulling the plug for good.”

Of the Tube strike, the RMT Union said: “Tube workers have been locked in a dispute over attacks to pensions and jobs for over 6 months while Overground workers employed by Arriva Rail London will strike over pay. LUL and TfL management have consistently refused to engage in discussions around safeguarding jobs, pensions and conditions on the spurious grounds that they are unable to give any assurances to our members until they have a financial settlement with the government.”

Andy Lord, TfL’s chief operating officer, said:“I would like to apologise to our customers who will have their journeys impacted by these strikes. We’re urging people to avoid travelling on the Tube and only travel if essential on the rest of the network on 19 August, and to ensure they check before they travel from 18-21 August. If customers are travelling they should plan ahead and expect disruption across the network. Walking and cycling is likely to be the best way to get around during this action.

“We’re urging the RMT and Unite to call off these strikes - my message to them is that it’s not too late to work with us, Arriva Rail London and RATP to find a resolution and avoid the huge disruption this action will cause.”

No dates have been announced for further rail industrial action beyond 20 August, and at least two weeks’ notice must be given of any strike.

Further Aslef ballots on industrial action close at Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry on Wednesday 27 July; and at Northern Trains; TransPennine Express; and Transport for Wales on Thursday 25 August.