Yahoo News Train strike latest: Crisis talks to avoid 27 days of South Western Railway walkouts
Crisis talks were taking place today in an attempt to avert 27 days of strikes on London’s busiest commuter rail routes throughout December.
RMT union leaders and South Western Railway bosses remain at loggerheads in the long-running dispute over the role of guards and control of train doors.
The action by SWR train crews would affect all services to and from Waterloo, the UK’s busiest station, on almost every day next month.
It would be the longest concentrated action ever seen on British railways and would cause travel misery for thousands of passengers over the busy Christmas period.
Downing Street has condemned the action as “unacceptable”.
Today Acas, the conciliation service, is bringing the two sides together for the first time since the strikes were ordered two weeks ago.
Based on previous walkouts — when SWR was only able to run two-thirds of its 1,800 trains a day on weekdays and just half of its reduced weekend service — more than 16,000 services could be hit.
The union said that the strike would cover every day in December except for Sunday 1 and Thursday 12, when the general election is taking place. SWR does not run services on Christmas day and Boxing day.
An SWR spokesman said: “We were approached by Acas and are happy to talk.”
The company states it has offered to keep a guard on every train as part of a framework agreement and accused the union of a “misguided attempt to hold power over the industry”.
Mick Cash, the RMT’s general secretary, said: “We enter into these talks in good faith as always, and the trade union will not be providing a running commentary.”
