The rail industry is warning that barely a fifth of services will run during two 48-hour strikes that will affect services for most of next week.
The train strikes will run on Tuesday and Wednesday (13th & 14th), and between Friday and Saturday (16th & 17th) — but services on Thursday 15th December are also going to be affected, especially in the morning.
All three main unions, the RMT, TSSA and Unite are on strike, with the impact varying across the rail network. The RMT strike will hit National Rail hardest with signal staff on strike, so even train companies that can run trains will struggle to do so.
Within London, although the London Underground is not on strike, some services will be affected where they overlap with the national rail network. Likewise London Overground and the Elizabeth line will be affected.
Travel during the strike
Passengers with Advance, Anytime or Off-Peak tickets for travel on a strike day can instead use their ticket on an alternative date:
- Tickets for 13, 14, 16, 17 December can instead be used the day before the date on the ticket, or up to and including Tuesday 20 December
- Tickets for 24, 26, 27 December can instead be used on 23 December or up to and including Thursday 29 December.
Passengers with Advance tickets can be refunded fee-free if the train that the ticket is booked for is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled.
If the Advance ticket is for a train that is scheduled for a strike day, is not cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, but a customer prefers not to travel, they should contact their ticket retailer.
Customers with 2 x Advance tickets (an outbound and a return), to be used as a return journey, may be able to get a fee-free refund or change of journey for any unused legs/tickets, if one (either) of the legs is scheduled for a strike day. Customers should check with their ticket retailer.
Passengers who are Season Ticket holders (flexi, monthly or longer), and who do not travel, can claim 100% compensation through Delay Repay for the strike dates of 13, 14, 16, 17 December.
The rail industry is also warning that even if the unions do call off the strike in the next few days it will be too late to recover the timetable, so disruption will still occur.
Strike timetables from each train operating company…
Avanti West Coast
One train per hour from Euston to each of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston, with a limited service onwards to Glasgow. Trains are also only expected to run between 8:30am and mid-afternoon.
c2c
- 2 trains per hour from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Laindon
- 2 trains per hour from Fenchurch Street to Pitsea via Rainham
- No service to or from Ockendon or Chafford Hundred.
Most trains will stop before 6pm.
Chiltern Railways
To be confirmed
CrossCountry
Limited services between Southampton and Manchester, and between Birmingham and Leicester/Edinburgh. No service on other lines.
East Midlands Railway
- One Train Per Hour between Nottingham and London St Pancras
- One Train Per Hour between Sheffield and London St Pancras
- One Train Per Hour between Corby and London St Pancras
EMR Regional
- One Train Per Hour between Derby and Matlock
- One Train Per Hour between Derby and Nottingham
- One Train Per Hour between Sheffield and Nottingham
- One Train Per Hour between Leicester and Nottingham (stopping service)
All other lines of route will be closed
Elizabeth line
Will revert to three services, with trains between Liverpool Street and Shenfield and Paddington to Heathrow between 7:30am and 6:30pm – and a normal service between Abbey Wood and Paddington.
No service to Reading.
Gatwick Express
No service at all
Grand Central
To be confirmed
Great Northern
To be confirmed
Great Western Railway (GWR)
A very limited service will run only on the following routes between:
- London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads, extended to Plymouth every other hour
- London Paddington and Bristol Parkway
- London Paddington and Cardiff
- London Paddington and Oxford
- Cardiff to Westbury (via Bristol Parkway)
- Bristol Temple Meads and Plymouth
- Reading and Didcot Parkway
- Slough and Windsor
- Maidenhead and Marlow
- Twyford and Henley
- Reading and Basingstoke
Services will start from 7:30am and all journeys must be completed by 6:30pm.
Greater Anglia
One train an hour, with first train from Norwich at 8am and last train back from Liverpool Street at 4.30pm.
Stopping service between Colchester and London Liverpool Street: one train an hour, with first train from Colchester at 7.30am and last train back from Liverpool Street at 5pm.
Service between Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street: two trains an hour, with first train from Southend Victoria at 7.30am and last train back from Liverpool Street at 5.30pm.
Service between Cambridge and London Liverpool Street: one train an hour, with first train from Cambridge at 8.20am and last train back from Liverpool Street at 4.25pm.
Stansted Express – Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street: two trains an hour, with first and last from Liverpool Street at 8.10am and 5.40pm and from Stansted Airport at 7.42am and 5.12pm.
Heathrow Express
Normal service, but only between 7:30am and 6:30pm
Hull Trains
To be confirmed
LNER
To be confirmed
London Northwestern Railway
Services will be in operation on the following lines only, between the hours of 7am to 7pm only:
- Lichfield Trent Valley – Birmingham New Street – Redditch / Bromsgrove
- Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton – Crewe
- Birmingham New Street – Wolverhampton (via local stations)
- Birmingham New Street – Northampton – London Euston
London Overground
Trains generally operate between 7:30am and 6:30pm to a reduced frequency on all routes.
No Romford to Upminster service, and no service between Barking and Barking Riverside.
London Underground
No service between Parsons Green and Wimbledon, or between Turnham Green and Richmond – as tracks are shared with National Rail.
No service between Queens Park and Harrow & Wealdstone – as tracks are shared with National Rail.
Lumo
To be confirmed
Merseyrail
- Chester and Ellesmere Port lines: No trains will operate between Chester and Rock Ferry or Ellesmere Port and Rock Ferry. Trains will run every 45 minutes between Rock Ferry and Liverpool Central, calling at all stations.
- New Brighton line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- West Kirby line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Southport line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Hunts Cross line: No trains will operate between Liverpool Central and Hunts Cross.
- Ormskirk line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
- Kirkby line: Trains will run every 45 minutes, calling at all stations.
Northern
A revised timetable for each route is on their website
ScotRail
To be confirmed
South Western Railway
A severely reduced service will run between 7:30am and 6:30pm on some routes, with the rest of the network closed.
- Waterloo to Woking – 4 trains per hour each way
- Waterloo to Basingstoke – 2 trains per hour each way
- Waterloo to Windsor – 4 trains per hour each way
Southeastern
Some routes open between 7am and 7pm on the Dartford and Sevenoaks lines. Only 44 out of 180 stations will be open.
Southern
Severely reduced service, typically two trains per hour from London Victoria and London Bridge, and won’t call at all stations along their routes.
Stansted Express
To be confirmed
Thameslink
- Two trains per hour between St Pancras International and Bedford/Luton
- One train per hour between King’s Cross and Ely
- One train per hour between King’s Cross and Cambridge
- One train per hour between Cambridge and Ely
- Two trains per hour between King’s Cross and Peterborough
- Two trains per hour between King’s Cross and Welwyn Garden City
- Two trains per hour between King’s Cross and Stevenage
TransPennine Express
To be confirmed
Transport for Wales
The majority of rail services across the Wales and Borders network will be suspended.
There will be a reduced services between Cardiff Central – Treherbert / Aberdare / Merthyr / Rhymney and between Cardiff Central – Newport.
West Midlands Railway
To be confirmed
Can someone explain what stops the bits of the Underground that travel over Network Rail owned from running, but the other way around where mainline services runs over TfL owned track (Amersham to Harrow on the Hill and Shoreditch to New Cross/New Cross Gate) are fine.
Surely the signalling is run by Network Rail but it’s the TOCs that have the strikes?
RMT staff working in Network Rail signalling and maintenance are also on strike.
Thanks Ian
There seems to be some confusion about the services to Brighton. The Independent thinks there will be services running from both Victoria and Bridge every half hour, but other sources saying that all Thameslink services south of the river are off. Do you have any reliable information here?
Source of the Independent’s claim: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/rail-strike-trains-running-today-b2244292.html