Severe congestion is expected on major routes in Herefordshire, with the rail strike that is taking place expected to cause chaos on roads across the country.
The A49 (Ross-on-Wye to Hereford and Hereford to Leominster), the A438 (Hereford to Ledbury), the A4103 (Hereford to Worcester) and the A465 (Hereford to Abergavenny) are expected to be worst affected, with many people forced from their usual rail journeys onto the roads.
Transport for Wales advises passengers not to travel by rail on strike days and to expect further disruption.
Transport for Wales (TfW) is advising customers not to travel by train on 21, 23 and 25 June, with the majority of their rail services suspended as a result of industrial action resulting from the dispute between RMT and Network Rail.
Due to the wider disruption caused, they’re also advising customers to only travel by rail if essential for 20, 22, 24 and 26 June.
TfW is not in dispute with RMT, but the industrial action means they are unable to operate rail services on Network Rail infrastructure.
The only services running on 21 and 23 June will be a reduced service between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil, with replacement bus services between Radyr and Cardiff Central.
On 25 June, this will be reduced further to services between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Pontypridd, with replacement buses in operation between Radyr and Cardiff Central, and between Pontypridd and Merthyr Tydfil due to the ongoing transformation work for the South Wales Metro.
All other services will be suspended, as signalling and other infrastructure work is managed by Network Rail, who are impacted by the industrial action.
There is also expected to be disruption on the days prior and after the industrial action, with early morning services in particular likely to be affected. Trains are also expected to be extremely busy throughout the entire week.
As a result, TfW is advising that customers only make essential journeys by train on 20, 22, 24 and 26 June, and not to travel at all by train on 21, 23 and 25 June.
Full details of the timetable for these days will be available from 16 June. Customers can find these on the TfW, Traveline and National Rail websites using the journey planners.
Tickets
Customers with existing non-season tickets valid for travel from Tuesday 21 June to Saturday 25 June can use those tickets anytime between Monday 20 June and Monday 27 June. Alternatively, customers can claim a full refund, with no admin fee charged. Season ticket holders can apply for compensation via Delay Repay.
In the meantime, TfW has suspended sales of Advance tickets for the first three strike dates in order to minimise the number of people disrupted. Customers are advised to continue to check the TfW or Traveline websites, and those of other operators, for updates.
West Midlands Railway (WMR) has confirmed details of its reduced timetable which will be in operation during this week’s (w/c June 20) planned industrial action.
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) have announced their intention to stage strike action on Tuesday 21 June, Thursday 23 June and Saturday 25 June.
A very limited number of WMR services will run on these dates, with passengers urged to only travel if essential. In order to allow vital freight transportation to continue, those services which do run will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm on these days.
A significantly reduced service will also operate on Wednesday 22 June and Friday 24 June as the strike action will impact the usual operation of the railway. On these days services will commence at 7.30am with last trains earlier than usual.
Jonny Wiseman, WMR customer experience director, said:
“It is very disappointing that this planned strike action by the RMT is set to cause significant disruption to our passengers.
“We will be operating a very limited service all through the week and we are asking customers to only travel with us if their journey is essential and no other transport option is available to them.
“Passengers holding tickets or season tickets will be entitled to refunds and should visit our website for information.”
The following routes will have a limited service in operation between 7.30am and 6.30pm on strike days:
- Cross-City Line (Lichfield Trent Valley – Redditch/Bromsgrove via Birmingham New Street) – 2 trains per hour
- Wolverhampton – Birmingham – 1 train per hour
- Birmingham New Street – Birmingham International – 1 train per hour
No trains will run on any other WMR route, including all routes via Birmingham Snow Hill, Birmingham-Shrewsbury, Birmingham-Worcester-Hereford and Nuneaton-Leamington Spa.
For further information passengers should visit www.wmr.uk/industrialaction
Only travel if necessary and expect severe disruption, GWR warns as RMT strikes set to impact trains all week
Significantly reduced timetable announced, with only 30% of services operating on strike days
Train operator GWR has announced its planned timetable to operate next week as industrial action by the RMT union at train operators across the industry and Network Rail is expected to severely affect services from 21 to 25 June.
GWR is warning people to expect severe disruption and to only travel by rail if absolutely necessary.
GWR will operate as many trains as possible during the strike action however, most train services will be affected on the days announced. Due to the timing of the strike action, services in between strike days will also be affected.
On strike days the operator is aiming to provide about 30% of its usual timetabled services, and about 50% on non-strike days.
GWR Managing Director Mark Hopwood said:
“We very much welcome the opportunity to continue to talk with the RMT to avert strike action. Any strike will impact on customers’ journeys and can only damage the post-covid recovery everyone at GWR has been working to win back, while at the same time making it more difficult to deliver the changes we need to secure jobs and services for the future.
“I’m hopeful the RMT will step back, however colleagues have been working hard to put contingency plans in place and give certainty to customers who need to travel. The priority will be to keep trains running and customers moving safely, but changes will be needed to allow that to happen and customers may wish to alter their plans.”
Where trains are able to run, they are expected to be extremely busy and replacement bus services are not able to be provided.
Customers who have already purchased tickets can claim a full refund or can amend their ticket; those who travel and are delayed may be entitled to delay repay compensation if they are delayed by 15 mins or more. Season ticket holders can apply for compensation through the Delay Repay scheme.
To help customers, GWR is allowing people with tickets for travel on strike days to be able to travel on the day before and up to two days after.
Our Refund and Book with Confidence policies will remain in place and we will update this page with more information if the current situation changes.
