Rail passengers face more disruption with series of new strikes starting today

Workers at Arriva Rail North (Northern) are to stage fresh strikes in the long-running dispute over the role of guards on trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Arriva Rail North (Northern), will walk out today (October 6) as well as October 13 and 20.

Northern was accused of failing to give assurances on the guarantee of guards on its services.

Talks between the RMT and Northern ended without agreement on Wednesday.

Union general secretary Mick Cash said the Northern dispute would have been "entirely preventable" if the company had listened to the union's deep-seated safety concerns.

Arriva Rail North say they will be operating a reduced timetable with very few trains running before 9am and after 6pm. They say they expect to run around 30% of services and all customers are advised to plan carefully if they intend to travel on the rail network.

This weekend also sees a significant event taking place in Liverpool with the third visit of The Giants - a large street festival with hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend.

Liam Sumpter, Regional Director at Northern, said: