April 28th - What the effects of the latest rail strikes will be
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2023
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Travellers trying to reach the Eurovision Song Contest and the FA Cup Final by rail could find their trains cancelled by a series of strikes. The main rail union, the RMT, and the train drivers’ union, Aslef, have called more walk-outs in May and June. Staff will stop work at more than a dozen train operators, including all the key long-distance and commuter rail firms. On Friday 12 May, Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June, train drivers belonging to Aslef will walk out. Aslef has also imposed an overtime ban on eight days between 13 May and 1 June.
The RMT has called a strike by members working at 14 train operators on Saturday 13 May.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast. It is the final one of the week, Friday, |
| 0:07.5 | the 28th of April, and we're going into a bank holiday weekend. But unfortunately, Mayday is how |
| 0:17.7 | a lot of travellers will be feeling this morning, |
| 0:25.9 | waking up to the news that, unfortunately, there are going to be yet more strikes. |
| 0:28.8 | Taking these, I calculate, into a 13th month. |
| 0:33.3 | Busy old day yesterday, first of all, the train drivers union, Asleff, |
| 0:43.5 | called a series of three walkouts in May and June, Friday the 12th, Wednesday the 31st of May and Saturday the 3rd of June. |
| 0:49.8 | They're also putting in eight days of overtime ban in late May and early June. |
| 1:12.2 | Then, as we're just digesting that, the RMTT union the main rail union called a strike by members working at 14 train operators on Saturday the 13th of May now clearly those walkouts particularly the first two are going to hit passengers hoping to reach Liverpool for the climax of the Eurovision Song Contest. |
| 1:14.2 | Final is on the Saturday. |
| 1:24.6 | And while Mersey Rail itself isn't going to be affected, that runs from Liverpool to Jester to Ormskirk to Southport, |
| 1:28.3 | lots of other train operators are at Vanty West Coast, Transpennine Express and Northern are all among the train operators affected, along with the main |
| 1:34.0 | other long-distance companies, cross-country, LNER, Great Western Railway, and loads of commuter |
| 1:40.7 | services. Then, if you look forward to the third of June, that coincides with the FA Cup final. |
| 1:48.2 | I believe it's the first time. |
| 1:50.2 | You've got two Manchester teams, United and City, both playing at Wembley in northwest |
| 1:55.3 | London, and normally, of course, tens of thousands of fans will be travelling by rail |
| 1:59.2 | to that match. On the same day, it's the London |
| 2:03.5 | Derby. And what is the traveller to make of this? Why are we still so long after the start of the |
| 2:13.1 | first rail strike since the 1980s? Why are we still going through this? Well, let me try and |
| 2:18.6 | explain. Many of the disputes have been settled. For example, the Transport Salaries Staff |
| 2:25.9 | Association, Unite have not, have settled with their employers. Network rail staff, |
... |
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