Rail strike: Commuters must stay the course, says Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said commuters must “stay the course” during the rail strikes, as he urged rail bosses and unions to agree on a deal.

The prime minister, speaking to the Cabinet, said strikes were causing “significant disruption”.

Union RMT has called the strikes over three days due to “aggressive” cuts to jobs, conditions, pay and pensions.

The strikes are set to cause widespread disruption to millions of commuters across England, Wales and Scotland.

Passengers are being advised not to travel unless it is essential, as around 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 13 train operators have walked out.

Only 20% of trains are running after staff walked out at midnight and many areas have no trains at all. There are also strikes affecting London Underground stations on Tuesday.

Trains that do run are starting later and finishing much earlier than usual, operating between 07:30 and 18:30.

Strikes are set to continue on Thursday and Saturday.

Mr Johnson – speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday – said without modernisation to the industry, train operators risked going bust and passengers faced ever-increasing prices that could lead to them abandoning rail travel.

“We need the union barons to sit down with network rail and the rail companies and get on with it,” he said.

“I say to the country as a whole to stay the course because these reforms, these improvements are in the interest in the traveling public and help cut the costs for fare payers.”

The prime minister said the strikes were “so wrong and so unnecessary”, making it “more difficult for people to get to work, risking people’s appointments, making it more difficult for kids to sit exams – all sorts of unnecessary aggravations”.

Rail strikes caused long queues on the roads as many switched from trains to cars.

Location technology firm TomTom said congestion levels at 11:00 BST were higher than at the same time last week in a number of urban areas.

There were also long queues on outer London sections of the M1, M4, A4 and A40.

Vivienne O’Connor, from Ireland, had to race to get the last train on Monday night to travel to Shropshire for her cousin’s funeral.

After getting the ferry to Holyhead, she managed to catch the train to Wrexham, where a friend picked her up and drove her to Shropshire.

But now the strikes have left her stranded.

“The original intention was I was going to travel back after the funeral on Thursday, but obviously that can’t now happen because there’s no trains,” she said.

“So I’ve had to rejiggle my arrangements. I’m staying with my brother – for who knows how many days until it gets sorted.

“And will our tickets be honoured?”

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC there was a “pay offer on the table, the door is open” and said he wanted the law changed to allow people within a company to fill roles left vacant by striking employees.

He said: “We will change the law very quickly within the next couple of months… what we’re really primarily talking about here is transferrable skills.”

He added he did not meet with unions as that was for employers to do, describing calls for him to come to the negotiating table as “a stunt”.

RMT boss Mick Lynch apologised for the disruption to passengers, but accused the government, which owns Network Rail, of actively preventing employers and the union from reaching a settlement.

Mr Lynch told the BBC: “We’re sorry for that [disruption people are facing], we don’t want that to happen.”

But he said they were facing “mass job cuts, chopping up of our terms and conditions we’ve negotiated with the companies and many of our people haven’t had a pay rise for two years”.

How are you affected by the rail strikes? Do you have an important event to attend during the strike period? What alternative travel arrangements have you made? Tell us by emailing: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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