Train strikes - live: Weekend travel mayhem as 80% of rail services close

Train passengers have been warned to “only travel by train if necessary” after rail operators closed 80 per cent of services and half of lines to make way for the 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union walking out for the third time this week over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions.

Despite many commuters having been able to avoid the disruption caused by strikes by working from home, fresh alerts have been issued over fears that many are reluctant to abandon leisure trips planned for Saturday regardless of the strikes.

On Friday, transport secretary Grant Shapps called on striking rail workers to call off its Saturday demonstration and accused the RMT Union of “damaging the lives of everyday hardworking people that they claim to represent.”

But its general secretary Mick Lynch said its members cannot accept the “thousands of railway workers being thrown on the scrapheap after being praised as heroes during Covid.

“RMT will continue its industrial campaign until a negotiated settlement is reached,” he said.

Key Points

• Rail chaos continues as workers stage third 24-hour strike in a week

• Shapps urges RMT to call off strike

• Mick Lynch says rail workers now treated as ‘out of fashion’

Everything you need to know about the rails strikes

08:15 , Aisha Rimi

Britain’s biggest rail union, the RMT, is on its thir day of planned stike action at both Network Rail and 13 train operators over pay, redundancies and “a guarantee there will be no detrimental changes to working practices”.

It says: “Network Rail and the train operating companies have subjected their staff to multi-year pay freezes and plan to cut thousands of jobs which will make the railways unsafe.”

The union’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, has vowed “a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system”.

Here’s everything you need to know about the strikes:

When is the UK train strike? Dates, times and everything you need to know

ICYMI: Question Time guest says train drivers must adapt to new technology or end up like the dinosaurs

08:00 , Aisha Rimi

A Question Time audience member warned Mick Lynch that rail strikes were the “wrong approach” and that drivers needed to adapt to technology.

She said on BBC’s Question Time on 23 June: “Look what happened to the dinosaurs!”

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) boss replied: “Well they were around for a very long time.”

Mick Lynch: There won’t be any strikes in the next couple of weeks

07:45 , Aisha Rimi

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has told Sky News this morning that there “won’t be any strikes in the next couple of weeks” and won’t name dates of further walkouts. He also said he doesn’t think RMT members “will accept what’s on the table”.

He added that Network Rail wants to use “a form of fire and re-hire” to lower pay and that there is “a long way to go” in negotiations.

Do you support the rail strikes? Have your say

07:30 , Stuti Mishra

Half of Britain’s rail lines have been shut for two days with a third strike this week scheduled today during union strikes. And we want to know what you think and how you might be affected.

Click here to take part in our reader poll:

Do you support the rail strikes?

Starmer stance on rail strikes ‘may end’ Labour party, union chief warns

07:00 , Stuti Mishra

A senior union leader has warned that Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of the railway strikes “may end” the Labour party.

Starmer has infuriated many on the left of the party by ordering Labour frontbenchers to stay away from picket lines during the RMT dispute which brought much of the UK’s rail network to a halt for a second day today.

The comment by Mick Whelan, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef and co-chair with Starmer of the Tulo organisation which co-ordinates union support for Labour, reflects the depth of the rift within the movement over the leader’s stance.

Read more from our political editor Andrew Woodcock here:

Starmer stance on rail strikes ‘may end’ Labour party, union chief warns

Mick Lynch says rail workers now treated as ‘out of fashion’

06:30 , Stuti Mishra

Union boss Mick Lynch has said the government lauded rail workers as “heroes” during the Covid-19 pandemic, only to treat them as “out of fashion” now restrictions have lifted.

Speaking on BBC One’s Question Time, the head of the RMT union said: “We were lauded as heroes by Grant Shapps, they worked all the way through the pandemic, they were not furloughed, and they kept our railway and transport systems going.

“But what they’re being told now as a result of that, is that you’re out of fashion, you’re out of date, somehow the terms and conditions that we’ve negotiated over many years and we think are a fair deal…”

Eleanor Sly has more here:

Mick Lynch says rail workers treated as ‘out of fashion’ after pandemic

Shapps urges RMT to call off strike

06:11 , Stuti Mishra

Transport secretary Grant Shapps has called on striking rail workers to call off the third walkout of the week taking place today as weekend travel chaos looms.

Posting on Twitter yesterday, he said: “The RMT’s unwarranted strikes haven’t caused the mass overcrowding on buses or heavy congestion on our roads some feared.”

“But the Union is damaging the lives of everyday hardworking people that they claim to represent.”

“They should call off Saturday’s strike now.”

Rail chaos continues as workers stage third 24-hour strike in a week

05:55 , Stuti Mishra

Train services will be crippled again on Saturday because of another 24-hour strike by thousands of workers in a bitter dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are walking out for the third time this week, with little sign of a breakthrough to the deadlocked row.

Only a fifth of services will run and half of lines will be closed, with operators telling passengers they should only travel by train if necessary and to check their journey in advance.

Read more:

Rail chaos continues as workers stage third 24-hour strike in a week

05:47 , Stuti Mishra

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live blog on the ongoing rail and Tube strikes for Saturday.