First Great Western rail strike to go ahead as talks fail

First Great Western's new high-speed trains will replace a fleet dating back to the 1970s

A strike by workers at First Great Western (FGW) is set to go ahead this weekend after talks failed to resolve a row over new trains.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out for 24 hours from 00:01 BST on Sunday, causing disruption to services.

The strike is over the introduction of Hitachi Inter City trains and threats to jobs, said the union.

It said it had not reached agreement on "fundamental issues".

A spokesman said: "Despite strenuous efforts, we have failed to reach agreement with First Great Western on the fundamental issues at the heart of the dispute over the introduction of the new Hitachi trains.

"As a result the action this Sunday goes ahead. The union remains available for talks."

Services cancelled

An FGW spokesman said on Thursday: "We have held a positive meeting with the RMT today and while, disappointingly, no agreement has been reached, we plan to meet again on Monday. This means that the strike action planned by the RMT on Sunday is likely to go ahead."

The company has published a list of changes to its scheduled services on Sunday, saying it intends to run 70% of its regular timetable.

At least half of the intercity services will be cancelled with one train an hour between Paddington and Bristol, south Wales and the south west of England.

The Portsmouth - Cardiff trains will only run between Salisbury and Swindon and there will be no FGW trains to or from Weymouth.

In the Thames Valley nearly all the suburban services are scheduled to run as normal.

FGW rail workers held a 48-hour strike last month in the same dispute, causing disruption to tens of thousands of commuters.

The first Hitachi Class 800 Super Express train arrived in February for testing on the rail network

The operator runs train services between London Paddington, south Wales, the Cotswolds, the Thames Valley region and the West of England.

The first Hitachi trains will run on the Great Western main line from 2017 and the East Coast main line from 2018.

"The brand new Super Express trains will deliver more seats, faster journey times and more frequent journeys for our passengers. Our plans mean more train managers and customer hosts on board our trains, not less," FGW has said.

Union members are also due to strike over the Bank Holiday weekend.