More misery for rail passengers with first of six planned strikes in driver-only train row

A series of fresh strikes on Northern Rail begin today. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Arriva (Northern) will walk out for 24 hours on six consecutive Saturdays beginning 25 August, and continuing on 1 September, 8 September, 15 September, 22 September and 29 September, in a bitter row over the roles of guards.

The union has been embroiled in a row over driver-only operation for more than two years and has launched strikes against four train operators still involved, including Arriva Rail North (Northern).

On their website, Northern Rail say they are concentrating their efforts on running as many services as possible to keep customers moving and will publish details of timetables for each of these days of RMT strike action as soon as they have them.