National Rail Strike: Commuters on Wearside and South Tyneside urged to make ‘alternative plans’ for travel

Tuesday, June 21, will mark the biggest rail strike in 30 years as the RMT Union will see its members walk out over concerns about pay and job security.

There will also be strike action on Thursday June 23 and Saturday June 25. The action will cover almost all rail operational staff including drivers, guards, signallers, catering staff and track maintenance workers.

The action is expected to cause disruption for millions of people, including here in the North East, with services also unable to operate fully on the days between strike action due to logistics of train engine location.

A statement from Northern Trains, who operate 479 out of the 500 northern stations covering the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Customer safety is our priority, we advise you not to travel between Tuesday 21 and Sunday 26 June and make alternative plans.

There will be no replacement buses or alternative travel provided.

"On strike days there will be extremely limited availability of both train crew and signalling staff and as such we will not be able to operate services on most routes. There will be no replacement buses or alternative travel provided.

“Unfortunately, as we will not be able to position our fleet how we normally would, the significant impact of the strike will also be felt on non-strike days. Therefore, we regrettably advise customers not to travel on any day from Tuesday 21st through to Sunday 26th June.

“Where we are able to operate trains, services will be very limited, and trains will not start as early as normal and will finish much earlier than normal.”

The only Northern Train services running on strike days are listed below with times listed on the company’s website;

N3 - DARLINGTON - SALTBURN

N15 - LIVERPOOL LIME STREET - ALDERLEY EDGE

N35 - YORK - LEEDS

N39 - ILKLEY - BRADFORD FS - LEEDS

N40 - SKIPTON BRADFORD FS - LEEDS

N42 - LEEDS - SHEFFIELD

N46 - LEEDS - BRADFORD FS

LNER, who operate the East Cost mainline from Edinburgh to London, have also advised passengers not to travel on strike days. A statement on the company’s website said: “Over these dates we will be running around 38 per cent of our usual trains and they are likely to be very busy. If you can avoid travelling over this period we recommend doing so.”

Further details on times can be found on the LNER website.

Strike action to also affect Metro services

While Nexus Metro staff are not part of the industrial action, certain sections are operated by National Rail which means there will be disruption to services.

A statement of the Nexus website said: “Railway workers on the national rail network are going on a three-day strike over pay and jobs.

“Nexus employees are not part of the strike, however it does mean we are unable to operate any Metro trains between Pelaw and South Hylton in either direction on Tuesday 21 June. If you need to travel in this area on 21 June you will need to find an alternative form of transport.”

The same message is also repeated for the second and third days of industrial action on June 23 and 25, although on the Saturday there will be a replacement bus service running between Heworth and South Hylton which was already planned for scheduled engineering work.

One Wednesday June 22 and Friday June 24, the service between Pelaw and South Hylton will have a later start with the first train from Pelaw at 7.13am and the first from South Hylton at 7.50am.