Nationwide rail strike disrupts travel for millions in UK

Britain’s railways ground to a halt on Wednesday and travel was disrupted for millions of commuters as ministers, union leaders and rail bosses hardened their positions during one of the country’s biggest one-day rail strikes in decades.

Trains were stationary across much of the country, with only one in five services running overall and some regional lines cut off altogether, as 40,000 workers who belong to the RMT rail union walked out.

The strike follows three one-day walkouts last month. The union is planning further industrial action in August should no negotiated settlement be reached.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps and Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, which manages the railway infrastructure, both accused union leaders of overriding negotiators after what they said was progress towards a deal on pay, job security and working conditions.

Haines said Network Rail workers had been offered an 8 per cent pay rise over two years, tilted in favour of lower-paid workers, with discounted travel for workers and their families, no changes to contractual terms and conditions, and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies. He added that he had wanted this offer to be put to members.

In a sign of hardening positions ahead of the expected resumption of talks on Thursday, Haines said striking workers had now lost the offer of a cash bonus, as well as the day’s pay, and would be roughly £1,500 out of pocket as a result.

“This is a very, very different type of dispute from anything we’ve had previously, because the economics have changed,” he said, adding that it would be resolved only when the RMT accepted that changes to working practices were necessary to respond to the financial pressures caused by a lasting drop in commuter travel.

Network Rail said stations were reporting passenger numbers about 65-70 per cent down on a “normal” Wednesday, although more people were travelling, and more services running, than on the previous strike day.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch denied that the union’s leaders had walked away from a potential deal and said that, while there had been some progress in discussions with Network Rail, its offer amounted to a “measly” 8 per cent over three years, as salaries were frozen in 2021. Many other issues remained unresolved, he added.

“There will be a massive change towards unsocial hours in the Network Rail part of the industry. They want to cut 50 per cent of the maintenance regime and do 50 per cent less inspections, which we believe is unsafe. They want to change all of the working practices of our members working in the maintenance part of the industry,” Lynch told the BBC, adding: “None of that is acceptable.”

There had been no pay offer from the train operating companies, he added.

On a day of increasingly angry recriminations, Shapps accused the unions of holding the country to ransom and threatened to curb their powers by enforcing minimum service levels and banning “strikes by different unions in the same workplace within a set period”.

He also ruled out meeting the RMT to break the deadlock.

Strike action is set to escalate in coming weeks, with a national walkout on Saturday by members of the train drivers’ union Aslef expected to cause further severe disruption, potentially affecting travel to the women’s Euro 2022 final.

The union said on Wednesday that members at nine rail companies would walk out on August 13.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said it was “utterly shameful” that Shapps was refusing to enter talks with the RMT, adding: “The transport secretary has spent more time on his own doomed leadership bid, than he has resolving these strikes.”

Shadow transport minister Sam Tarry was on Wednesday sacked by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer after he joined a picket line at Euston station, London.

A Labour spokesperson said it took action not because Tarry had appeared on a picket line but because he had not sought approval before making media appearances.