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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Daniel Morrow

Halfords offers commuters e-bikes for free to get to work during rail strike

Halfords is offering commuters the chance to use one of its e-bikes for free during the huge rail strikes taking place across the country.

People with a valid season ticket for the train will be able to loan one of the bikes across its 404 UK stores today, Thursday, June 23 and Saturday, June 25.

The bikes will be available for six hours, to ensure that they can get to their workplace as rail services are cancelled across the country.

READ MORE: Rail strike Scotland LIVE: Train updates as most ScotRail services grind to a halt

READ MORE: Kay Burley snaps at Grant Shapps for not meeting RMT ahead of rail strikes

Use of the e-bikes will be subject to stock and will be provided on a first come first serve basis.

A deposit of £101 will be taken when the bike is collected, which will be refunded in full when the bike is returned.

Halfords Cycling Director Paul Tomlinson said: “Millions of commuters face travel misery next week, so we are stepping up to offer our trial e-bikes to rail commuters during the disruption and making them available to loan from all 404 stores nationwide on a first come first serve basis.

“E-bikes are fun, fast and take the strain out of hills, making them the perfect means of tackling a short commute.”

Tens of thousands of rail workers will walk out over three days this week as part of the biggest rail strike in 30 years.

Staff at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies will take part in strike action today, Thursday and Saturday.

Union bosses say that the action has been taken in protest over working conditions and government cuts to the UK transport system.

The RMT is also seeking a seven per cent pay rise for staff, which they say reflects the cost of living crisis.

ScotRail services will be severely disrupted over the three days, despite its staff not being directly involved in the strikes.

This is due to to Network Rail signallers and maintenance staff, who are in safety critical roles, being on strike during this period.

Only five ScotRail services in the central belt will be in operation until 6.30pm on June 21, 23 and 25. Services in the rest of Scotland will be completely shut down.

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