South Western passengers to be hardest hit as union calls for walkouts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday over role of guards

Commuters are facing a week of disruption as workers in five rail companies prepare for strike action over the role of train guards.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the first full week back at work following the festive break after last-ditch talks collapsed.

The union is striking in protest at moves or possible plans to cut guards from trains, which they say would be unsafe. Several operators have said they do not plan to reduce staff numbers overall, but are refusing to give the guarantees over roles and responsibilities that the union seeks.

Passengers who use South Western Railway (SWR) are likely to be the worst hit, with the rail operator expecting to cancel at least 450 trains a day – a quarter of its service – during the three days of strikes.

The operator, which carries more than 300,000 passengers a day on 1,700 services – including many to and from Waterloo in the capital, said it would lengthen some trains and rail replacement bus services would be put on for some routes.

Northern said it will run around 1,350 services on strike days, more than half its normal timetable, with most running between 7am and 7pm. Greater Anglia will run a full service despite staff strikes on all three days.

Merseyrail will run a reduced service, mostly between 7am and 7pm, with a break during the middle of the day and no trains on the Kirby, Ellesmere Port or Hunts Cross lines. Arriva Buses will accept Merseyrail tickets on all three strike days covering the Northern and Wirral lines.

Staff at Southern will only stage industrial action for 24 hours on Monday and the operator expects changes to services and cancellations.

To try to solve the dispute, Mick Cash, the general secretary of RMT, has written to the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, proposing a summit with the Department for Transport, the train companies and the union.

He said the meeting could consider how the principles of the agreements the union has reached in Scotland and Wales, which will keep guards on new trains, can be applied to the current disputes while meeting any concerns the Department for Transport and train companies have about future train services.

Cash said he was proposing the summit as there had been a “lack of clarity” and “contradictory messages” from government on the issue of driver-only trains.

He said: “I have told the secretary of state that agreements have been reached in Scotland and Wales for safe, secure and accessible modern services and that with goodwill on all sides we can reach an agreement in England as well.”

He also said every single effort had been made to reach negotiated settlements but they had been left “with no option but to press ahead with the action”.

He added: “No one should be in any doubt, these disputes are about putting the safety of the travelling public before the profits of the private train companies.”

The shadow transport secretary, Andy McDonald, called for Grayling to take up the proposal for a summit. He said: “If his counterparts in Scotland and Wales can facilitate modern agreements that keep guards, he should be able to do the same.”

A Department for Transport spokesman responded by saying that the dispute was “between a private company and the RMT”. He added: “However, the transport secretary recognises the disruption caused to passengers and has met union leaders on several occasions, including as recently as December, to help bring an end to the strikes.

“He offered guarantees of employment to members who currently fulfil the role of the second person on the train beyond the length of the franchises – instead the RMT called strikes on five train companies to cause maximum disruption to passengers.

“Nobody is losing their job as a result of driver-controlled-operation trains – employees have been guaranteed jobs and salaries for several years,” he said.

In response to the strikes, Andy Mellors, SWR’s managing director, said: “We are sorry that our passengers will once again suffer due to this unnecessary strike action. Our passengers just want to get to work in the morning and back home on time in the evening to see family and friends.

“We have repeatedly guaranteed that no one will lose their job and that we will roster a second person on board every train.

“However, what we have been trying to talk to the RMT about is what happens if a guard is unavailable at short notice, perhaps due to illness or disruption; and how we might keep passengers moving rather than leave them stranded.”

Angie Doll, the passenger services director for Southern, said the action was “regrettable” and criticised the union’s efforts to end the dispute.

She said: “The RMT leadership opposes changes that we made a year ago to improve passenger services. No one has lost their job. We have made four offers to the RMT to resolve their dispute but they have rejected every one of them without even putting them to their members for a vote.”