Northern Rail offers May train strike advice ahead of two weeks of industrial action in England

Northern Rail is claiming strike action by ASLEF and the RMT union will bring significant disruption to services across the North of England on two days next week.

Members of the ASLEF union, who largely represent train drivers, will walk out on Friday 12 May with the train operator cancelling all services throughout the day of action.

RMT members will strike on Saturday 13 May, on which Northern will only operate hourly services on a small number of key routes between 7am and 7pm. No services will run from Newcastle station.

Whilst there is no strike action on Sunday 14 May, services are expected to start later in the morning than normal due to fleet displacement after action the previous day.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “It is disappointing to see the return of industrial action to the rail network.

“Whilst all strikes disrupt someone, these particular dates will have a significant impact on people travelling on our network to celebrate the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.

“Given the context in which the UK is hosting this international event - on behalf of the people of Ukraine - this is particularly unfortunate.”

Further ASLEF action, known as ‘action short of strike’ will take place for five consecutive days from Monday 15 to Friday 20 May. On those dates, customers are advised to ‘check before you travel’ as early-morning and late-night services may be affected.

ASLEF members are also due to walk out on Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June on which there will be no Northern services.

This month’s strike action comes ahead of Northern introducing its new summer timetable on Sunday 21 May. Customers who make regular journeys on the same train times are advised to check before they travel as some services may have been re-timed.

More specific information on adjusted routes and timetables can be found on the Northern Rail website.

Will the Tyne and Wear Metro run on strike days?

The local operator has said it will run a regular service on strike days.

A Nexus spokesperson said: “Tyne and Wear Metro employees are not taking industrial action and there will not be an impact on Metro services anywhere on our network during the latest round of rail strikes.

“The line between Pelaw and South Hylton is owned and managed by Network Rail, but they have settled their industrial dispute, which means no suspension of rail services on the Sunderland line.”

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