Rail union strikes to coincide with polling day

Rail union leaders will target election day for a series of national train strikes after a High Court judge forced them to cancel four days of walkouts this week.

As leaders re-ballot their members, union sources said new dates for strikes over job cuts and changes to working conditions could fall just before or after 6 May.

Network Rail admits a walkout by signal staff would bring most of the network, used by more than three million passengers a day, to a halt.
The dispute is over Network Rail's plans to axe 1,500 maintenance jobs and change the working conditions of thousands more.

RMT leader Bob Crow said he would turn the dispute into a "high-profile political issue throughout the election campaign". He says the changes will affect safety, which Network Rail denies.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in