More than 40,000 Network Rail employees and 13 railway operators are expected to leave next week on June 21, 23 and 25 in a wage and layoff dispute. Network Rail said the six-day shutdown was due to the impact on services in the days following the strike. The company said that on the lines that are open, the routes will operate only from 7.30 am. until 18.30 and not all stations will be served. He has advised that “passengers who need to travel” are asked to “plan ahead” to ensure that they can complete their journey within this window. No passenger service will serve locations such as Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, Swansea in South Wales, Holyhead in North Wales, Chester in Cheshire and Blackpool in Lancashire. There will also be no passenger trains north of Glasgow or Edinburgh and the last trains to and from London will be much earlier than normal. The open lines include the main West Coast line from London to Scotland via locations such as Birmingham and Manchester. A number of major events, including the Glastonbury Festival, which runs from June 22 to 26, may be affected by the strikes. Read more: Which train lines and major events will be hit? The number of passenger services on strike days is expected to be reduced to around 4,500 compared to the usual 20,000. Network Rail said it wants to cut between 1,500 and 2,000 front-line jobs in a bid to cut costs, improve security and boost productivity. Andrew Haines, CEO of Network Rail, said: “The talks have not gone as far as I hoped, so we need to prepare for a pointless national rail strike and its devastating impact.” RMT and Unite are also involved in industrial operations that will affect the London Underground on 21 June. Network Rail said only about half of Britain’s rail network would be open on strike days with very limited service running on the lines. In the days following the strike, the company says only about 12,000-14,000 services due to traffic lights and checkpoints not working in night shifts starting strike dates.
