Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast for Monday the 13th of February

and yes I'm on the railways again as you can possibly hear from the noises off but when will

the next rail strikes be that is what everyone wants to know. And all I can tell you

is that there will not be a strike over the next two weeks. So pretty much until the end of February,

you can make plans subject, of course, to things such as the closure of the East Coast and the West Coast mainlines

next weekend on the 18th and 19th of February.

But the news we got late on Friday from the RMT Union has depressed me and anybody else who depends on the railway.

Bear in mind that for several weeks, the union, which is the main rail union,

and is in dispute with Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group representing train operators,

all of whom are backed by the government, they were given what was called a best and final offer.

And they have been discussing it.

They have not put it to a referendum.

All they have done is discussed it with the National Executive Committee and with their shop stewards, their union representatives.

And what did they think of it?

Well, the union says that it was effectively a dreadful offer.

Both the offers were fairly similar, 5% last year plus 4% this year, based on all kinds of

changes to working progress. Mr. Lynch, the general secretary, said, we put it to our members.

There was a universal rejection of what's on the table.

Well, I think when he says he put it to the members, he didn't actually put it to the members.

And I guess the union would argue, well, it's a terrible deal.

So obviously we're not going to waste money on a referendum for something we know is absolutely awful. But it does

put us back to effectively where we have been for, well, getting on for the last eight months.

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