SOUTH Essex rail passengers face fresh travel disruption from today as workers take strike action in bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and 14 train operators, including c2c and Greater Anglia, are staging two 48-hour walkouts from Tuesday and Friday, while drivers in the Aslef union will strike on Thursday.

READ MORE

Passengers, including those returning to work after the festive break, are being warned to expect “significant disruption” as only a limited number of trains will run.

The advice is to only travel if absolutely necessary, allow extra time and check when first and last trains will depart.

There may also be disruption to services on Sunday as the striking workers return to their duties.

Trains that do run will start later and finish much earlier than usual – with services typically running between 7.30am and 6.30pm on the day of the strike.

Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said there “is an unprecedented level of ministerial interference” preventing a settlement to the dispute.

He said: “The Government is blocking the union’s attempts to reach a negotiated settlement with the rail employers.

“We have worked with the rail industry to reach successful negotiated settlements ever since privatisation in 1993, and we have achieved deals across the network in 2021 and 2022 where the Department for Transport has no involvement.

“Yet in this dispute, there is an unprecedented level of ministerial interference, which is hamstringing rail employers from being able to negotiate a package of measures with us, so we can settle this dispute.

“We will continue our industrial action campaign while we work towards a negotiated resolution.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Passengers have rightly had enough of rail strikes and want the disruption to end.

“The Government has demonstrated it is being reasonable and stands ready to facilitate a resolution to rail disputes. It’s time the unions came to the table and played their part as well.

“Inflation-matching pay increases for all public sector workers would cost everyone more in the long term – worsening debt, fuelling inflation, and costing every household an extra £1,000.

“Unions should step back from this strike action so we can start 2023 by ending this damaging dispute.