Rail passengers face another day of disruption on Saturday as members of the RMT union at train operators in England go on strike.
The 24-hour stoppage, accompanied by an overtime ban by train drivers, follows immediately on from Aslef’s strike on Friday.
Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, blamed government “arrogance” for lack of progress in the dispute, after the union’s attempt to open fresh talks last week was rebuffed as “not serious” by the rail industry.
Many more trains will run on Saturday than on Friday but severe disruption across the country is expected, with services generally starting later and finishing earlier. Unions are on not on strike in Scotland or Wales but cross-border services will be affected.
Long-distance operators such as Avanti, East Midlands Railway, LNER and GWR will run roughly one train an hour on major routes, while other networks such as Northern and TransPennine will only run on an extremely limited number of routes.
Passengers have been urged to check before travel owing to wide regional variations.
There is little sign of the lengthy dispute ending soon. Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, said on Friday that striking drivers were “in it for the long haul”.
Talks between unions and employers have not taken place since early this year, with the government and industry body the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) urging the unions to put pay offers to their full memberships.
Lynch sent a “roadmap” on 26 August that suggested a way to restart talks, but this was dismissed by the RDG. The industry body has insisted that there would be no talks unless unions showed “movement” on changes to working practices.
Lynch said the rebuff showed the “arrogance” of government ministers, who he said were refusing to allow train operators to make a revised offer. A formal response from the RDG on Friday rejected the union’s proposals but said they remained available for talks.
Lynch said: “While it is encouraging that the train operating companies want to continue dialogue with us next week, a fresh proposal will be needed to progress this dispute towards a settlement.”
The RMT and Aslef rejected offers this year. The train drivers’ union dismissed as “risible” a two-year offer worth 8%, which the government said would take the average salary from about £60,000 to just under £65,000, and also included changes to working conditions.
The RMT rejected a 9% offer, which the industry said would be worth 13% to the lowest paid, earning about £20,000 a year, with fears of widespread redundancies as ticket offices are closed across England.
A public consultation on proposed ticket office closures ended on Friday, with about 500,000 responses filed.
Speaking at a picket line outside London Euston station on Friday, Whelan said his members were “in it for the long haul”. He added: “Some of our members, when we get to the end of this year, will be five years without a pay rise, so there’s no sign of any weakening or any lack of resolve, and our members in many cases want to go harder and faster.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson called the strikes “frustrating” and said the unions had coordinated industrial action “with the aim of causing as much disruption as possible on the last weekend of the summer holidays”.
The spokesperson said reasonable pay offers remained on the table, adding: “Continued industrial action is disappointing and delays the reforms that would ultimately benefit passengers, rail workers and taxpayers.”
According to the industry, rail passenger numbers have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels on some routes for leisure travel, but revenue remained an estimated 30% below 2019 levels in real terms because of a decrease in daily commuting, business travel and peak-time journeys.
