Northern advises customers ‘Do Not Travel’ on RMT strike dates next week as skeleton timetable is revealed
Northern has published the timetable for the skeleton service it will operate next Thursday (18 August) and Saturday (20 August) as the latest round of strike action by the RMT union and ‘work to rule’ measures by the TSSA union take place.
The overwhelming majority of services across the operator’s 550-station network will be cancelled, with hourly services on just six routes confirmed as operational.
Running between 7.30am and 6.30pm, they are:
- Leeds to Sheffield via Wakefield Westgate
- Leeds to York via Micklefield
- Leeds to Bradford Forster Square
- Leeds to Skipton
- Leeds to Ilkley
- Liverpool to Alderley Edge via Chat Moss, Manchester Piccadilly and Manchester Airport
Given the limited number of services in place, Northern’s advice to customers is ‘Do Not Travel’.
Rail users should also expect significant disruption on the morning after strike days (Friday, 19 and Sunday, 21 August) as fleet displacement will mean services will not start until much later in the morning, after the usual rush-hour peak.
For more information, Northern's customers should visit: northernrailway.co.uk/strikes
Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “The combination of RMT strikes and ‘work to rule’ measures by the TSSA union will make this round of industrial action worse than the two previous occasions this summer.
“We will be able to operate less than 100 of the nearly 2,000 services we would normally provide to customers across the North of England. We’ve done everything we can to offer a skeleton service on the parts of our network where we’re able to - but our advice, unfortunately, has to be ‘Do Not Travel’.
“We apologise in advance for the significant disruption and inconvenience this action by the RMT and TSSA will cause. We will continue to work towards a resolution to this issue with the hope of avoiding future strikes.”