Three more days of train strikes announced in safety row

Wigan passengers will face three more weekends of strike action on the railways as a long-running safety dispute rumbles on.
A Northern trainA Northern train
A Northern train

The RMT union said members on Northern, which runs routes through both Wallgate and North Western, would be downing tools on the first three Saturdays in February.

Other news: Double Wigan killer Darren Pilkington back behind barsThe 24-hour walk-outs are on February 2, February 9 and February 16.

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There have now been more than 40 days of industrial action as the union fights against driver-only operations and demands the retaining of a second member of staff on all Northern services.

Announcing the latest strikes, the RMT savaged the operator and its own Deutsche Bahn, accusing train bosses of lying about their plans and not being interested in negotiations.

General secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT continues to make every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but the company are not interested and would prefer to fire off a barrage of misinformation about both the dispute and their intentions to deflect attention from the impact of their behaviour on the travelling public.

"German-owned Northern have made it perfectly clear in emails to staff that they want to run trains 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.

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"The bogus 'guarantees' that they are trying to spin up to the travelling public are not worth the paper that they are printed on.

“We thank the public for their support and understanding throughout this dispute over rail safety and access and the union remains ready for genuine and serious talks.”