Workers employed by crisis-stricken Northern rail are to stage three strikes later this month as their union capitalises on recent travel chaos to fight plans to abolish train guards.

All Northern conductors, conductor instructors and train driver members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) have been instructed to strike for 24 hours on Tuesday 19 June, Thursday 21 June and Saturday 23 June. The strikes will begin at one minute past midnight and run until 23.59 each day.

The announcement was greeted with dismay by some passengers, who have become used to the grim regularity of delayed and cancelled Northern services. “This is like the kitchen being on fire in a restaurant and the cooks refusing to help put it out,” said one member of the 3,000-strong Facebook group Northern Resist, where travellers share their woes.

May must act to end northern England rail crisis, Corbyn says Read more

Others believed the strikes could force a welcome change. “I hate to say it but these strikes couldn’t come at a better time! I feel RMT are going to put the final nail in Northern’s coffin,” said another passenger.

The RMT will seek to leverage the widespread disruption caused by last-minute timetable changes and overrunning engineering work to win their long-running battle to keep guards on trains.

Northern’s owner, Arriva Rail North, a subsidiary of the German national railway Deutsche Bahn, wants to operate driver-only services with automatic doors – a move the RMT says will “shred safety culture in same way they’ve shredded timetables”.

RMT’s general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “RMT will not stand aside while the threat to axe safety critical guards from Northern services remains central to the company plans. This company has reduced the timetable to total chaos and the union will not allow them to slash the safety culture to ribbons in the same fashion.



“It is a tribute to the determination and professionalism of RMT members on Arriva Rail North that they have remained rock solid for over a year now in what is a clear-cut battle to put public safety before private profit.



“German-owned Northern rail wants to run half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access ‎to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately.



“RMT has agreed arrangements in Wales and Scotland that enshrine the guard guarantee. If it’s good enough for Wales and Scotland to have safe rail services it should be good enough for the rest of Britain.”

Richard Allan, Northern’s deputy managing director, said: “Northern is working extremely hard to stabilise and provide certainty in delivering a reliable train service on those parts of our network affected by recent very significant disruption and cancellations.

“We have apologised repeatedly and extensively to customers, are working urgently on our additional customer compensation offer, and our energy and focus is on providing a better service for customers.

“The May timetable problems and the latest RMT strike action will not deter us from delivering our modernisation plans for customers - £500m of new trains which are currently under construction, better stations and more services by 2020.

“We are still prepared to guarantee jobs and pay reviews for conductors until the end of our franchise in 2025, with the Government guaranteeing jobs beyond that, but both guarantees depend on RMT ending its strike action.”

Earlier this week, the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, said Northern could be banned from bidding for future franchises if a review finds it to have been negligent or at fault for the recent weeks of rail chaos.



On Wednesday South Lakes MP Tim Farron announced he will be leading a walk from Windermere station to Oxenholme station on Saturday from 2pm to protest at the temporary closure of the Lakes Line by Northern Rail and the government.



Farron, the former Liberal Democrat leader, will be stopping at each train station along the route to gather more signatures for his “Sack Northern” petition which calls on the government to strip the rail company of both the Lakes and Furness Lines.

