Travellers are being warned of disruption to services at a rail operator over the bank holiday weekend because of a strike by workers. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at CrossCountry will take industrial action on Saturday, August 23 and bank holiday Monday.
The company said it will run a reduced timetable over the weekend, with no services on the Saturday. Services on Sunday are likely to be subject to cancellations across all CrossCountry routes. Passengers are advised not to travel on Saturday and to travel on either side of the bank holiday weekend, or claim a full refund.
“If you do decide to travel over the August bank holiday weekend please check your journey,” said the company. It added that a “very limited” service will operate on Monday between 8am and 6pm, and passengers are advised to check their journeys before departing and expect all services to be busy.
Specific journey details will be available on its website from early next week but there will be no CrossCountry service between Birmingham, Reading and the south coast, and no service between Leicester, Cambridge and Stansted Airport. There will only be a very limited service to the South West and north of York.
On the Monday, planned engineering work in the West Midlands will also impact CrossCountry services that do run, meaning some journeys will take longer. Shiona Rolfe, CrossCountry managing director, said: “We are disappointed for our passengers that the RMT has announced strikes on Saturday 23 and Monday August 25.
“It is hugely disappointing to not operate any services on Saturday, knowing the inevitable disruption to many of our passengers’ journeys over the bank holiday weekend. We are committed to reaching an agreement with the RMT and remain available to continue talks.”
An RMT spokesperson said: “Our members have voted strongly in favour of industrial action, and we are seeking further talks with management to bring about a negotiated settlement.”
Union sources said the dispute centres on claims that CrossCountry has failed to honour agreements on staffing, safety, and pay. Meanwhile, National Express said it is boosting capacity on its intercity services over the bank holiday weekend in response to the industrial action.
The coach operator is adding 9,000 extra seats on routes including Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Bolton, Cardiff, Hull, London, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield, Swansea and Wolverhampton.
Nicky Kelvin, Editor at Large at The Points Guy said: “The planned engineering works will affect several routes across the rail network over the Bank Holiday weekend, with services across several operators impacting passenger journeys, with reduced and amended timetables in place.
“I always suggest that rail passengers should always make sure they are checking their operator website ahead of time, or websites such as Trainline.Com or the National Rail website to see if their planned route will be impacted. Another great tip is on the travel day itself, to go on X to see what other passengers are saying and have experienced when travelling on the revised route.
“Given how the August Bank Holiday weekend is always a popular time for Brits to make the most of the three-day weekend, most people will not be able to avoid travelling so my advice is to look at alternative options for travel as rail replacement bus services can take longer than other modes of transport. If passengers need to travel, try and look at alternative times to avoid peak journey times when they will be notoriously busy and crowded.
“For those hitting the roads, make sure you set off early and allow extra journey time for traffic and congestion – there is nothing worse than spending hours in tailbacks and gridlock traffic, which can be avoided if drivers set off a little earlier.”
