East Midlands rail services cancelled due to union action

There were picket lines in Leicester and Derby

Rail services in the East Midlands have been cancelled due to action by unions, operators have said.

No East Midlands Railway (EMR) services will run on Wednesday and there will be no services east of Nottingham up to and including Saturday.

Members from RMT, TSSA, Aslef and Unite will be taking action with disruption expected across the UK.

EMR warned customers to check the time of their last return train before travelling.

No services will be running on Wednesday, EMR warned

The company said it would not be running any services on Wednesday because train drivers, who are members of the Aslef union, will be taking strike action.

From Thursday up to and including Saturday, no trains are due to run east out of Nottingham - affecting passengers who might want to travel to Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

On some routes, trains will all terminate by 18:30 BST and no further services will run.

Passengers have been urged to think carefully about their journeys

David Calfe, president of Aslef, said: "Aslef members are on strike for 24 hours across 13 companies, approximately 9,000 train drivers. They are striking over pay. Many have not had a pay rise since 2019.

"East Midlands Railways colleagues have had no percentage pay increase for last year and no increase again this year, and likewise for CrossCountry colleagues - they have had no rise since 2019.

"Ultimately we need the government to give us a political solution to this because they are the ones saying the companies can't give the drivers a pay rise."

David Calfe said members had not had a recent pay rise

Aslef had picket lines, in support of striking drivers, outside the main entrance of Leicester railway station and also the EMR office in Derby.

Will Rogers, EMR's managing director, said: "As a result of strike action being taken by multiple unions across the country, we will be operating a significantly reduced service on strike days.

"In addition, we will unfortunately not be able to operate any trains on Wednesday 5 October, and from Thursday up to and including Saturday, we cannot operate any regional services east out of Nottingham.

"We have worked hard to provide as many services as safely possible but it is a complicated situation with our timetables being impacted differently depending on which union is on strike.

"That is why we are advising customers to plan ahead and only travel by rail if absolutely necessary on strike days."

The RMT said it was taking further strike action because of a failure to make progress in negotiations with the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail.

"Neither has produced an offer that addresses the cost-of-living crisis or our members' concerns about the threats of mass redundancies, hugely detrimental changes to terms and conditions and the imposition of longer working hours for less pay," it said in a statement.

The TSSA said it was taking Action Short of Strike (ASOS) including an overtime ban on Wednesday and Saturday.

The Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said her message to trade union leaders was to take their seats at the negotiating table so a "landing zone" could be found that everyone could work with.