A grieving man from West Lothian will have to miss his late aunt’s funeral amid a fresh wave of strikes by railway staff today.
Kristian Melson had hoped to attend his aunt’s service on Thursday, after she died on July 13 at the age of 76.
But the 30-year-old operations manager will now miss the service in Cambridge as Wednesday’s strikes disrupt later trains.
He said: “I am really frustrated that there are more strikes after the recent disruption. I cannot see my family at such a tragic time.
“Most people understand the reasons why (staff) want to strike, we have all felt the squeeze in our finances because of inflation. The strikes are highlighting the issues the rail workers are facing but the disruption is angering travellers.
“The strikes are stopping people going about their daily lives which isn’t helping me agree with their cause.”
While ScotRail is not included in the action, its services will be impacted as Network Rail Scotland signallers and maintenance staff in safety-critical roles will be taking part in the walk-out.
ScotRail has warned customers of significant disruption due to RMT Network Rail strike action.
Strikes are being held today as well as Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20, meaning a very limited number of services will operate.
This will effect people in West Lothian as there will only be two trains running between Edinburgh and Bathgate on these days as well as only two trains through Linlithgow on the Glasgow via Falkirk High route.
Mr Melson continued, saying he is trying to reduce air travel to improve his carbon footprint but said flights were too expensive anyway. He added: “I moved to Scotland knowing that I was only ever four hours away by train.
“My family are all based in the South East so they can go together by car between them. They are sad I cannot attend and pay my respects.”
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the Train Companies have not offered us anything new.
“In fact Network Rail have upped the ante threatening to impose compulsory redundancies and unsafe 50 per cent cuts to maintenance work, if we did not withdraw our planned strike action.
“The train operating companies have put driver only operations on the table along with ransacking our members terms and conditions.
“RMT will continue to negotiate in good faith but we will not be bullied or cajoled by anyone. “The government need to stop their interference in this dispute so the rail employers can come to a negotiated settlement with us.”
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