Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me Simon Calder for once not on a train or at a station, but I want to talk to you about the prospects for rail travel in Great Britain over the next 10 or 12 days. That's because we are going to see a massive amount of industrial

action. The key date is Saturday the 1st of October, which will most certainly be the biggest

shutdown due to strike action of the rail network for four decades. The RMT union, the

biggest rail union, is calling out more than 40,000 members working for network rail and 14 train

operating companies. They say they will effectively shut down the railway network.

Well, there are certainly going to be a lot fewer trains than there normally are on a strike day because Aslef, the train driver's union is calling out members at a dozen rail firms.

And that will actually have the effect combined with the RMT operation

of keeping eight out of nine trains off the rails.

There will be in many parts of the country no service at all and for example Euston Station, one of the big hubs for London,

will be completely closed. There will be an impact on the following day, which of course is the

first day of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham and perhaps of more interest to people

the day of the London Marathon.

And certainly at London Waterloo, the biggest rail station headquarters at the moment for Network Rail and the massive South Western Railways train operator.

They are saying, please do not travel on either day

unless you absolutely have to so saturday is going to be a mess and it will impact sunday particularly

the early trains that's because our mt members who are signallers haven't necessarily signed on for night shifts

and there will be trains and crews out of position.

Next, having got through Saturday and Sunday, Aslef members at 13 train operators are going to stop work on the 5th of October.

That is next Wednesday.

Now, there's quite a list of train operators, but crucially, the GTR franchise, which includes Great Northern Southern Thameslink, and indeed the Gatwick Express, isn't one of those.

Neither is C2C, but you will see no trains on Avante West, being driven on Avante West Coast by ASLEF members at least, cross-country, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway, L-N-E-R and Trans-Pennine Express.

Although I do expect some of those operators to have some trains driven by either non-union members or there will be management driver trainers, for example, who I have seen operating trains during driver's strikes.

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