Strike action disrupts West Midlands Trains rail services

Members of the TSSA union are in dispute with West Midlands Trains

A number of rail services in the West Midlands will be disrupted by strike action on Friday.

Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) members are walking out in a row over pay and conditions, affecting West Midlands Trains services.

Two other unions have planned a large-scale strike this weekend which will impact 14 train companies.

But members of the TSSA called off their action planned for Saturday so talks with Network Rail can continue.

West Midlands Trains says it will operate limited services between Birmingham and Liverpool and Birmingham and London between 07:30 and 19:30 GMT on Friday, but all its other trains will be cancelled.

It will mean the cancellation of services in the West Midlands conurbation, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

The union has almost 18,000 members and began taking action against Network Rail and train operating companies in the summer.

It said the dispute was over "job security, a pay rise that reflects the rising cost of living and no changes to terms and conditions without agreement".

The union has plans for further industrial action affecting passengers travelling with Avanti West Coast; C2C; East Midlands Railway; GTR; South Western Railway; and Southeastern Railway, running to 9 November.

But strike action which would have affected Network Rail, as well as CrossCountry train services, will not go ahead.

The TSSA said it had suspended the planned action against Network Rail "in order to facilitate the progress of ongoing 'constructive, intensive and detailed discussions'".

Meanwhile, the RMT union has called strikes for 5, 7 and 9 November, which will impact the employees of 14 train companies.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, says only about 20% of services are expected to run, and those that operate will start later and finish earlier, between 07:30 and 18:30 GMT.

In some parts of the country there will be no services running at all.

• When are the train strikes and what lines are affected?

Unions are urging bosses to boost salaries to reflect the growing cost of living.

Network Rail said the offer it made in July is worth 8% over two years, but depended on workers accepting its "modernisation plans".

However, the RMT - which represents rail workers - said this was a "paltry sum" and represented a real-terms pay cut.

The RMT said another issue was Network Rail's plans to cut 2,500 maintenance jobs, as it tries to save £2bn over the next two years. The union described those jobs as "safety critical".

Network Rail said there would be no more than 2,000 job losses - and that all redundancies could be voluntary. It said it would not consider any changes that would make the railways less safe.