A train strike is set to bring disruption to services on the London Euston route within days, affecting thousands of passengers on the West Coast Main Line. The industrial action, called by the TSSA union, will take place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, leading to a significantly reduced timetable on London Northwestern Railway (LNR) routes.
Affected routes and service levels
On Friday and Saturday, only one train per hour will run on key routes including Birmingham–Liverpool, London Euston–Crewe, Birmingham–Euston via Northampton, Milton Keynes–Euston, and Watford Junction–St Albans Abbey. On Friday, no trains will operate after 7pm, with the final London Euston to Crewe departure at 3.46pm. Saturday services will start later than usual, and trains that do run are expected to be busy.
The Marston Vale Line between Bedford and Bletchley, and the Stafford–Crewe via Stoke-on-Trent route will have no service on Friday and Saturday. LNR warned that some sections will have no trains at all and urged passengers to check their journeys using the online planner.
Knock-on disruption expected Sunday
Although the strike concludes on Saturday night, LNR said some knock-on disruption is expected on Sunday morning due to displaced trains. The walkout involves roster clerks and duty train crew managers, part of an ongoing dispute over rest day working payments that has been brewing for months. Similar strike action affected West Midlands Railway, LNR's parent company, in May. Avanti West Coast services are not affected.
Union and company statements
TSSA General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: 'These strikes will go ahead as planned because our members have not been given parity with those in other unions – a perfectly reasonable demand. As things stand we face an intolerable situation. Our reps at West Midlands Trains have consulted the membership and they remain determined to proceed with their legitimate action. The last round of industrial action caused a significant impact to services and the same will happen this time around. Of course, as ever our union only takes strike action as a last resort, so we hope that our demands can be met in coming days to avoid any more disruption.'
LNR’s customer experience director Jonny Wiseman said: 'We are disappointed TSSA has called further unnecessary strike action which is set to cause significant disruption for our customers. We are working hard to reach a resolution to this dispute and urge TSSA to continue talks. We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause our customers and we are doing everything we can to minimise the impact as much as possible. If the strike action does go ahead we will be running a significantly reduced timetable on both dates.'
Background and impact
The TSSA union, which has over 17,000 members in the UK and Ireland, says the walkout is due to the rail operator and government’s failure to assure that workers’ rest day agreements will be brought in line with other unions. The dispute has been ongoing for months, with previous strikes in May causing significant disruption. Passengers are advised to plan ahead and expect delays and cancellations on affected routes.
