The National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) recently announced plans for strike action that will take place on Wednesday 27th, With ASLEF set to follow suit with members striking on Saturday 30th July.
The rail union Transport Salaried Staffs' Association have also confirmed that members in station grades at operator Avanti West Coast will also be striking this Wednesday due to the ongoing dispute over pay, job security and conditions.
Passengers planning to travel on these days have been urged to plan their journeys ahead as train services will face dramatic disruptions and route closures.
Whilst not every organisation within the rail sector is facing strike action, the likes of the Transport for Wales (TfW) will see its services affected by the dispute as the majority of services on the Wales and Borders network will be suspended.
Network Rail have released details of affected routes and closures below:
Wednesday 27 July
- Wales and cross border services
- TfW will be operating a Cardiff to Newport shuttle, with one train per hour in each direction, between 07:30 and 18:30 hours.
- An hourly GWR service will run between Cardiff and London Paddington in each direction up until early evening.
Core Valley Lines (CVL)
- TfW Train services will operate between Cardiff Central and Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil in an hourly service in each direction between 07:30 and 18:30 hours.
- Trains will be able to operate between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil before 07:30 hours and after 18:30 hours (and then up to 20:30 hours due to engineering work). Road transport will enable customers to travel between Cardiff Central and Radyr in each direction outside of these hours.
- However, customers are advised there will be extremely limited road transport capacity available.
- Customers are advised all train and road transport services are expected to be extremely busy due to the reduced service frequency.
Services that will not operate on the CVL include: Cardiff Bay-Cardiff Queen Street, Penarth-Cardiff, Barry Island-Cardiff, City Line services between Coryton and Radyr.
There is also expected to be disruption on the days prior and after the industrial action with services starting up later than usual.
Thursday 28 July
Though there is no planned strike action for Thursday, the shift patterns of signallers will lead to major challenged involved with situating trains and crews to operate between the industrial action days. This will likely cause unavoidable disruptions to services.
Saturday 30 July
During ASLEF strike action, on Saturday 30 July, it will not be possible to run any GWR services in Wales & Borders. Passengers who need to travel between Carmarthen and London Paddington will need to travel with another train operator or travel on an alternative day.
TfW staff are not involved in the ASLEF strike action and plan to run a full timetable on Saturday 30 July, but services are likely be impacted by strike action at other train operating companies. This could result in short-notice cancellations and changes and services being very busy.
Nick Millington, acting route director at Network Rail Wales & Borders said:
“I’d like to apologise to passengers for the disruption caused as a result of the industrial action and thank them for their patience and understanding.
“We’re working very closely with our train operating colleagues to ensure we’re able to run as many services as is safely possible with the number of safety critical staff we have available.
“I would like to urge passengers to only travel by train, if necessary, on Wednesday 27 July and to please check journeys before travelling."
Passengers can get ticket refunds if they are unable to travel on the strike days and can also use their tickets on alternative days. Passengers should check with their train operator for more details.
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