Rail passengers will suffer fresh travel chaos on Wednesday this week with another strike to take place in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) will walk out, causing huge disruption to services. Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan told the PA news agency the dispute would now continue until the government intervened.
He urged Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan to “lift the shackles” from train companies so they could make a pay offer to workers. “The message I am receiving from my members is that they are in this for the long haul and if anything they want industrial action to be increased,” he said.
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Transport for Greater Manchester has said passengers should check the latest advice from train operators before travelling. It also anticipated that the strikes will impact rail journeys up until Sunday 9 October.
The TfGM website says: "For all strikes, we advise you to regularly check the status of your journey with your operator (particularly immediately before you travel), arrive early for your train and expect services to be busier than normal."
Here is all you need to know about the upcoming strike...
What date is the strike?
The next rail strike will be on Wednesday, October 5. Although the industrial action will only last for one day, passengers have been warned that services are likely to be disrupted in the early morning of Thursday as workers return to duties.
Manchester City will play FC Copenhagen at the Etihad at 8pm on Wednesday. TfGM said: "As many train operators will be affected, if you intend to travel to the fixture by mainline rail services, plan ahead, assess any alternative travel arrangements and check with your operator immediately before travel."
Elsewhere, the disruption will affect football fixtures and the final day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.
Which companies will be affected?
National Rail says 'most routes across the rail network' will be disrupted and warned that 'it is inevitable that services will be cancelled or severely disrupted.' There will be a very limited service on Wednesday with no service at all in some places.
The companies affected by the strike include:
- Avanti West Coast
- Chiltern
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Trains
- Greater Anglia (including Stansted Express)
- Great Western
- Hull Trains
- LNER
- London Overground
- Northern Trains
- Southeastern
- Transpennine Express
- West Midlands Trains
How will the strikes affect services in Greater Manchester?
Avanti West Coast has said that there will be no train services running on Wednesday. Passengers have been advised not to travel.
There will be no CrossCountry services running on Wednesday either.
No Northern services will run on Wednesday and customers are being advised not to travel on strike dates.
A reduced timetable will be put in place for TransPennine Express services, between Scarborough and Liverpool Lime Street, Edinburgh and Manchester Airport and Cleethorpes and Manchester Piccadilly. See the amended timetable here.
No East Midlands Railway services will run on any part of the network on Wednesday.
Will the Metrolink be affected?
The Metrolink will not be affected and services will continue to operate on Wednesday. All lines will run to their usual frequency and times.
However, there is no ticket acceptance in place on Metrolink services. You will need to purchase a separate Metrolink ticket for your journey.
Are there more rail strikes to come?
More strikes are scheduled to take place later this week. The TSSA is planning industrial action on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, while RMT union members will strike on Saturday, October 8.
A very limited rail service will operate and customers are advised to travel only if necessary and to check immediately before travel. On Saturday Piccadilly Station will only open between 7am and 7pm.
Metrolink will still operate as normal across the day but the access to Piccadilly tram stop will change before 7am and after 7pm. Access to the Metrolink stop during the closure will be via the walkway adjacent to the taxi pick up point on Fairfield Street, with level access to the Manchester bound platform and the Ashton bound platform via the track crossing next to Fairfield Street.
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