Are the trains on strike immediately? Each day in December 2022 and January 2023

Rail passengers face extreme journey disruption over Christmas and the New 12 months as staff stage a sequence of 48-hour strikes in December and January within the long-running dispute over jobs, pay and circumstances.

The RMT union has revealed that greater than 40,000 staff throughout Community Rail and 14 practice working firms will stage a sequence of 48-hour walk-outs.

Industrial motion is because of happen over the important thing Christmas interval, with members strolling out from 6pm on 24 December till 7am on 27 December. Most trains don’t run on 25 and 26 December anyway, however these aiming to journey by rail to see family members both aspect of Christmas Day can be affected.

Additional walkouts will then happen on 3, 4, 6 and seven January 2023.

The RMT has additionally issued an additional time ban for its members throughout the railway community from 18 December to 2 January.

What’s extra, the ASLEF union of practice drivers has since introduced that its members can even strike over pay on Thursday 5 January 2023, occuring in the midst of the RMT walkouts to go away rail commuters stranded for 5 consecutive days.

ASLEF, which represents 96 per cent of practice drivers in England, Scotland and Wales, introduced that staff with 15 firms, together with Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway and Nice Western Railway, had voted for the strike.

Of the following tranche of walk-outs, RMT common secretary Mick Lynch mentioned: “We really feel that we’ve been compelled to take this motion because of the intransigence of the federal government … We’ve been confronted with a particularly detrimental supply and our members merely aren’t able to simply accept the modifications the businesses have placed on the desk.”

Mr Lynch had earlier mentioned that the union is “sorry to inconvenience” the general public this Christmas, however urged them to “direct your anger and frustration on the authorities and railway employers throughout this newest section of motion”.

Community Rail’s chief negotiator, Tim Shoveller, mentioned the union was “taking part in quick and free with individuals’s Christmas plans” saying the most recent strike dates “intentionally goal important engineering work designed to enhance the railway”.

The consequences of those strikes is now properly established after numerous related walk-outs impacted British travellers over the summer time and earlier this autumn; industrial motion from round 5,000 Community Rail signallers will imply half the rail community is closed, with a much-reduced service on the rest.

Non-union members and managers will allow a service to run between 7.30am and 6.30pm throughout about half the rail community.

Mr Shoveller mentioned: “Nobody can deny the precarious monetary gap through which the railway finds itself. Hanging makes that gap larger and the duty of discovering a decision ever harder.

“Solely by way of reform, that won’t lead to anybody dropping their job, can financial savings be made that may then be transformed into an improved supply. And whereas progress has been remodeled these final two weeks, we nonetheless have but to search out that breakthrough.

“We won’t quit and hope that the RMT will return to the desk with a extra sensible appreciation of the state of affairs.”

A spokesperson for the Rail Supply Group, representing practice operators, mentioned: “We made actual progress during the last fortnight of talks and for the primary time in months we will see the define of a reputable deal.”

The continued disputes are centred round pay, working circumstances and job safety.

The RMT union says its common member earns £31,000 yearly, “with many on a lot much less, and none have seen a rise in three years”. The RMT additionally says the dispute is about “stopping catastrophic cuts that can instantly influence upkeep and accessibility”.

The Unbiased has approached the Division for Transport for remark.