Britain’s biggest rail strike in 30 years is about to take place from midnight tonight: What you need to know.

This is what you need to know:

Why?

After recent talks failed to resolve a bitter row over pay, jobs, possible redundancies and conditions the RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said thousands of jobs were being cut across the rail networks and workers were facing below-inflation pay rises. 

It has to be restated that the source of these disputes is the decision by the Tory government to cut £4bn of funding from our transport systems – £2bn from National Rail and £2bn from Transport for London.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said:

Strikes should always be the last resort, not the first, so it is hugely disappointing and premature that the RMT is going ahead with industrial action.The government committed £16bn – to keep our railways running throughout the pandemic while ensuring not a single worker lost their job.

The railway is still on life support, with passenger numbers 25% down and anything that drives away even more of them risks killing services and jobs.

Will any trains be running?

According to Network Rail around 20 per cent of service will be operational and will open at 7.30am to 6.30pm starting later and finishing earlier than the norm.

Only around half of Britain’s rail network will be open on strike days, with around 20% of services running on lines, .

On days between the strikes – 22 and 26 June – 60% of services will run.

A special timetable for 20 to 26 June has been published.

What about refunds?

Network Rail says:

If your service has been cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, you will be entitled to a change or refund from the original retailer of your ticket. An admin fee no more than £10 may apply.

There is a scale of refunds as highlighted by the Delay Replay scheme. 

25 per cent refund is legally payable if the jrouney is delayed by 15 to 29 minutes

50 per cent will be payable of your ticket price if the delay is between 30 minutes and a hour.

100 per cent refund is payable for any delays longer than 1 hour.

The government said season ticket holders will be able to claim full refunds on strike days.

I have a ticket, can I use it on another day?

Yes, you can use tickets valid on the strike days of 21,23 and 25th June can be used the day before the stated date or the Monday and Tuesday of the following week.

The lowdown on services

Avanti West Coast

On strike days services from

• London Euston will run every hour to Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Preston.
• No services from North Wales, Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Edinburgh.
• Trains will not be calling at Stockport, Macclesfield, Stoke-on-Trent or Runcorn, and these stations will be closed.

Customers with existing tickets for travel from Tuesday to Sunday can claim a full refund with further sales suspended to “help reduce disruption and overcrowding”.

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• Between 7.30am and 6.30pm there will be two trains per hour from London Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Laindon, and the same frequency from London Fenchurch Street to Pitsea via Rainham.
• No trains will run via Ockendon or Chafford Hundred.

East Midlands Railway

Services will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm, with no direct trains between Luton and London St Pancras on Saturday and Sunday. Just one train per hour will run in each direction on most routes.

West Midlands Railway

A very limited service.

Great Northern

There will be up to two per hour will run between King’s Cross to Ely, Cambridge, Peterborough, Welwyn Garden City and Stevenage via Hertford North finishing early afternoon.

London North Eastern Railway

• Only 38 per cent of trains will be running.
• The last train from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh is at 2pm, while the final service to Leeds will depart at 3.05pm.
• The last train from Edinburgh to London is at 12.30pm.
• The final departure from Leeds at 3.45pm.

London Northwestern Railway

• Just two trains per hour between London Euston and Northampton.
• One per hour between Birmingham New Street and Northampton.
• No trains will operate between London Euston and Crewe.

Great Western Railway

• Services not running on strike days:
• Cornwall and Devon.
• South Wales main line.
• Heart of Wessex line.
• Severn Beach line.
• North Cotswolds line
• South Cotswolds line.
• On Saturday, Greenford branch line services will not run.

There will be an “extremely limited service” on other routes, which will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Greater Anglia

Up to two trains per hour will run into the capital, starting from 7.30am and finishing by 6.30pm.

Northern

Services will not be operating on most routes, with a “very limited” number of trains on the few running lines, including those from Leeds.

South Western Railway

A “severely limited service” will run between 7.15am and 6.30pm on strike days, and only on some routes. This includes only four trains per hour between London Waterloo and Woking, and two per hour between London Waterloo and Basingstoke.

Southeastern

Very few services.

Southern

• Two trains running per hour from London Bridge and London Victoria to southeast London and the coast.
• Services will run on the Brighton Mainline to London Bridge and London Victoria, with additional trains from Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs, Sutton and West Croydon, via Crystal Palace.

Gatwick Express

• No service on strike days.
• A Sunday service will run on the days after the strikes, beginning after 7.15am and finishing early.

Heathrow Express

Services will be “significantly affected” during the week, with a half-hourly service operating between 7.30am and 6.30pm on strike days.

Stansted Express

There will be two trains an hour, with no services running from Stansted Airport to Norwich and Cambridge.

Thameslink

• Two trains per hour will run both north and south.
• No trains running between London St Pancras and London Bridge.

TransPennine Express

• Yarm, Scarborough, Seamer, Malton, Selby, Brough and Hull stations will be completely closed with no services calling there on strike days.
• There will also be significant disruption on Wednesday and Friday.

ScotRail

• No trains will run north of Glasgow or Edinburgh on strike days.
• Two trains per hour will run between the cities via Falkirk. They will operate between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

CrossCountry

• No services will run from Birmingham New Street to Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Peterborough, Cambridge or Stansted Airport across the three days.
• A “very limited service” is to run between Bristol Parkway and Plymouth and Birmingham New Street and Newcastle and Edinburgh Waverley.
• One train per hour is to run between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Piccadilly, Leicester, Leeds and York and Reading.
• Possible last-minute changes to the timetable.

Lumo

There will be “some disruption” to services throughout the week, but as many as possible will run.

Merseyrail

There will be no train services and no rail replacement buses on strike days.

Chiltern Railways

• On Tuesday, services will be unable to call at stations operated by London Underground.
• Across the three days no trains will run north of Banbury, to Oxford, or to Aylesbury via Amersham. One train an hour each way will run to Banbury, Aylesbury via High Wycombe and between Aylesbury and Amersham (except Tuesday).
• The service will start from around 7.30am, with morning trains not arriving in London until after 9am.
• The final train from the capital will leave at 4.45pm.

Caledonian Sleeper

All departures are cancelled between Monday and Friday.

Grand Central

• Three trains in each direction will be running on strike days. 
• A full timetable planned on the other days
• Some services have been cancelled or will start later.

Transport for Wales

• On Tuesday and Thursday a reduced service will run between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil, with replacement bus services between Radyr and Cardiff Central.
• There will be a reduced service between Radyr and Treherbert, Aberdare and Pontypridd, with replacement buses in operation between Radyr and Cardiff Central on Saturday. All other services will be suspended.
• Hull Trains has announced that its planned strike has been called off after “reaching an agreement” with Aslef, adding that talks are continuing.