Members of the RMT union working for 14 train operators are staging more walk-outs in the current round of strikes.
Since June 2022, national rail strikes in a tangle of disputes about pay, job security and working arrangements have caused problems for tens of millions of train passengers.
Since then, stoppages causing massive disruption for passengers have been called frequently.
These are the key questions and answers.
Who is striking when?
The main rail union, the RMT, has instructed all its members working for 14 train operators to strike on Thursday 30 March and Saturday 1 April.
The train firms are those contracted by the Department for Transport. They include the leading intercity operators:
- Avanti West Coast
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Great Western Railway
- LNER
- TransPennine Express
All the London commuter operators will also be hit:
- c2c
- Greater Anglia
- GTR (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink)
- Southeastern
- South Western Railway
Operators focusing on the Midlands and north of England will be affected:
- Chiltern Railways
- Northern Trains
- West Midlands Trains
A planned strike that also brought in workers at Network Rail has been shelved while a ballot of RMT members takes place.
What will the effect be?
Passengers can expect normal service on:
- Caledonian Sleeper
- Grand Central
- Heathrow Express
- Hull Trains
- London Overground
- Lumo
- Merseyrail
- ScotRail
- Transport for Wales
Trains run by these companies are likely to be more crowded than normal on routes usually shared with train operators whose staff are striking, such as London-York-Newcastle-Edinburgh and Swansea-Cardiff-Newport.
The exact proportion of normal services will vary from one train operator to another. During the earlier Spring 2023 strikes, on Thursday 16 March and Saturday 18 March, around half the nation’s trains ran. The best performer was the London-south Essex operator, c2c, which ran a normal service.
On many intercity lines services were hourly, though with many early and late services cancelled.
Worst performers were Northern and TransPennine Express.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) says: “It is expected that nationally between 40 and 50 per cent of train services will run, but there will be wide variations across the network, with no services at all in some areas.
“It is likely that evening services on some lines will be affected on the days before each strike.“
Will Eurostar be affected?
No, but connections to and from the train operator’s main hub at London St Pancras International will be difficult because union members working for all three domestic train operators (East Midlands Railway, Southeastern and Thameslink) serving the station will walk out.
Why are they taking industrial action?
Workers for the train operators have been offered a minimum pay rise of 5 per cent for 2022 and 4 per cent for this year (with additional increases for lower-paid staff) as a “best and final” offer.
But it is contingent on the union accepting a wide range of changes to working arrangements.
The RMT is demanding “an unconditional pay offer, a job security agreement and no detrimental changes being imposed on members terms, conditions and working practices”.
The general secretary, Mick Lynch, said that after “an in-depth consultation of our 40,000 members” the overwhelming view was reject “these dreadful offers”.
During the last strikes, he told The Independent: “We’re looking to get back around the table next week. We want to work up some solutions to these problems and we want to get a square deal for our people.
“If we can do that, the dispute will be ended.”
What do the employers say?
They are furious that union members were not given the opportunity to vote on the offers and that the RMT is now demanding an unconditional pay rise.
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: “The RMT leadership has repeatedly accepted in public and in the negotiating room that the post-pandemic railway is at a turning point and has to change. The union cannot accept the need for change without also accepting that means changing working practices.
“RMT members are already voting with their feet as more and more colleagues return to work today fed up with more lost pay and no say on a deal that gives the lowest paid a 13 per cent pay rise.
Could the strikes be called off?
If they are, some sort of framework agreement will need to be reached at least a week before the walk-outs. Any later than that, and trains are likely to be cancelled anyway – as they were last November when a round of strikes was called off at the last minute. With staff not rostered to work, tens of thousands of trains were cancelled anyway.
The government, which will ultimately sanction and pay for the eventual settlement, and the union now appear to have dug in for a war of attrition. Ministers know public confidence is being eroded by the unreliability of trains. But the transport secretary, Mark Harper, says: “Modernising working practices must be part of reform.”
On the current offers to members working for Network Rail and the train operators, he says: “Best and final means what it says.” The railway, he says, is financially unsustainable.
Ministers believe cracks are appearing in the solidarity of the union, with rail workers unlikely to recoup the money they have so far lost during industrial action in the form of higher pay.
The RMT leadership, conversely, is betting that the membership will continue to obey the strike call, and that eventually the government will buckle and agree to a no-strings deal.
It is now a question of who backs down first. Caught in the middle: the long-suffering passenger.
I have a ticket booked for one of the strike days. What can I do?
Passengers with Advance, Anytime or Off-Peak tickets can have their ticket refunded with no fee if the train that the ticket is booked for is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled.
The RDG says: “Tickets for travel on 30 March or 1 April can instead use their ticket on the day before the date on the ticket or up to and including Tuesday 4 April.
“Passengers with season tickets (flexi, monthly or longer), who do not travel, can claim 100 per cent compensation for the strike dates through Delay Repay. “
Have the train drivers settled, at least?
Far from it. Train drivers belonging to the Aslef union staged their eighth walk-out earlier this month in a similar dispute about pay with train operators who are contracted by the government.
They, too, are demanding a no-strings offer. But The Independent understands talks are proceeding positively through the auspices of the Rail Industry Recovery Group and that the sides are inching towards a deal.
This will involve a basic pay rise of 7 per cent or slightly more, with extra payments for accepting modernisation such as incorporating Sunday into the working week where this does not yet happen.
