Rail strike leads to six days of disruption for rail passengers across the Midlands

Some train operators in the Midlands are set to strike this week in a dispute over pay and redundancies, causing huge disruptions to passengers.

Staff at Network Rail and 13 train operators are expected to walk out on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June.

There will also be disruption on Wednesday 22, Friday 24 and Sunday 26.

Rail workers have warned it's set to be the biggest strike in a generation, with more than 50,000 staff set to walkout.

Network Rail has said half of Britain's rail lines will be closed during the strike.

Which operators in the Midlands are intending to walk out?

• Avanti West Coast

• Chiltern Railways

• Cross Country

• East Midlands Railway

• Great Western Railway

• Greater Anglia

• London Northwestern Railway

• West Midlands Railway

Major roads across the Midlands are likely to see an increase in traffic while the strikes happen, with more people travelling by car.

Below is a breakdown of the changes and cancellation to trains this week, but passengers are being urged to check before they travel.

Impact to Avanti West Coast trains:

• There will be a limited service, with around a quarter of the normal timetable operating.

• Trains will not be calling at Stoke-on-Trent, so the station will be closed on strike days.

• They plan to run one train per hour from Euston to Birmingham.

• Trains will only run between 8am and 6pm.

Impact to Chiltern Railways passengers:

• No services between Birmingham Moor Street and Birmingham Snow Hill or Solihull on the Monday 20th due to engineering work.

• The railway will be closed between Dorridge and Birmingham Moor Street due to essential mid-week engineering works on Monday 20 June.

• No trains will run between Banbury and Birmingham from Tuesday to Saturday.

• Services will be suspended on "most routes" on strike days due to "extremely limited availability of staff".

Changes to CrossCountry next week:

• No services will run from Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads,

  Cardiff Central, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport across the three

  strike days.

• A limited service is planned between Birmingham New Street to Newcastle and Edinburgh.

• One train per hour will run between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, Birmingham New Street and Leicester, Birmingham New Street and Leeds and York, and Birmingham New Street to Reading.

Impact for East Midlands Railway:

• No trains will run between Worksop and Nottingham or Lincoln and Nottingham on strike days.

• One Train Per Hour between Nottingham and London.

• One Train per Hour between Derby and Matlock, Derby and Nottingham, Leicester and Nottingham and Nottingham and Sheffield.

How Great Western Railway passengers will be impacted:

• The operator says services will be "severely affected" between Tuesday 21 and Saturday 25.

• An extremely limited service will operate between 07:30 and 18:30. On non-strike days, no services will run before 07:00.

Greater Anglia impacts:

• During the days of strike action, Greater Anglia will not run any trains on regional routes.

• They'll be no rail replacements buses.

Impact on London Northwestern Railway passengers:

• They'll be one train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Northampton from Tuesday to Saturday.

• One train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Liverpool Lime Street from Tuesday to Saturday.

West Midlands Railway changes:

• On strike days, no trains will run on several routes to and from Birmingham New

  Street, such as Hereford, Shrewsbury, Walsall.

• No service from Leamington to Nuneaton.

• No trains between Birmingham Snow Hill and Leamington / Stratford.

• No services between Birmingham Snow Hill and Kidderminster / Worcester including Stourbridge Shuttle.

• One train per hour between Birmingham New Street and Birmingham International.

• Two trains per hour on strike days between Lichfield Trent Vally and Redditch/ Bromsgrove.

• One train per hour from Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton on strike days, two trains per hour on Wednesday and Friday.

• No service from Birmingham New Street to Walsall / Rugeley on strike days. They'll be no service between Walsall and Rugeley on Wednesday and Friday.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Strikes should always be the last resort, not the first, so it is hugely disappointing and premature that the RMT is going ahead with industrial action.

"The government committed £16 billion – or £600 per household – to keep our railways running throughout the pandemic while ensuring not a single worker lost their job.

"The railway is still on life support, with passenger numbers 25% down and anything that drives away even more of them risks killing services and jobs.

"Train travel for millions more people is now a choice, not a necessity. Strikes stop our customers choosing rail and they might never return.”