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The biggest rail union has suspended strikes on the West Coast main line for the next two Sundays – but the announcement comes too late for a normal service to run on 19 January.
Train managers working for Avanti West Coast and belonging to the RMT union are engaged in a long and bitter dispute over pay for working on rest days.
The union has called a total of 22 one-day strikes, which began on New Year’s Eve and are due to take place every Sunday until June. The stoppages cause the cancellation of most trains on the network, which connects London Euston with the West Midlands, northwest England, North Wales and southern Scotland.
On strike days, only around one in four trains can run – with office staff standing in as train managers. Links to Birmingham and Manchester, which normally run every 20 minutes, are reduced on strike days to just one an hour. Many stations, including in North Wales and Scotland, are not served at all by Avanti West Coast.
But the RMT has now suspended the planned walkouts on 19 and 26 January “to allow intensive talks to take place following recent approaches by Avanti”.
An RMT spokesperson said: “This suspension reflects our goodwill and commitment to finding a resolution to this rest-day working dispute.
“We are responding to overtures from Avanti and hope meaningful progress towards a negotiated settlement can be made during these talks.”
The union stresses: “All other previously announced strike dates remain in place.”
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson: “We are pleased that the RMT has made the decision to suspend planned industrial action on Sunday 19 and Sunday 26 January. We remain open to working with them to resolve this dispute.
“Although the announcement comes too late for us to run a full timetable this Sunday with just 48 hours’ notice, it does mean we will look at running some extra services on that day.
“On the following Sunday we will be able to run our regular services but there are engineering works on the West Coast Main Line. Our advice to customers travelling this weekend is to check on the day you travel.”