LONDON — Britain is bracing for additional rounds of rail strikes after unions announced planned strike dates later this month and in August.
The Guardian reports the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) has called strikes for August 18 and 20; those strikes will involve about 40,000 RMT members at infrastructure company Network Rail and 14 operating companies. That decision came just hours after ASLEF, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, which represents more than 21,000 train drivers, announced that train drivers at eight operating companies had voted to strike on Saturday, July 30.
Operating companies to be affected by the ASLEF strike are Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, South Eastern, and West Midlands Trains. Greater Anglia will also strike on July 23, while Hull Trains will also see strikes on July 23-24.
Six of those companies — Chiltern, Greater Anglia, Great Western, LNER, South Eastern, and West Midlands — will also be part of the RMT strikes. Others involved in that work stoppage are Avanti West Coast, c2c, Cross Country Trains, East Midlands Railway, GTR, Northern Trains; South Western Railway and Transpennine Express, along with Network Rail.
Previously, the RMT had announced a 24-hour strike on July 27.
An earlier round of strikes called by the RMT shut down operations on three days in June [see “Britain hit by biggest rail strike since 1990s,” Trains News Wire, June 21, 2022]. At the time, the union indicated additional walkouts were possible unless its demands were met.
