Network Rail are urging passengers to travel only “if absolutely necessary” on Christmas Eve, and “if possible to consider travelling another day” as thousands of passenger trains are cancelled due to the latest round of strikes with members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) who work for Network Rail, walking out from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on 27th December.
Full timetables for the last trains before Christmas have been published with rail bosses saying that schedules have been severely hit, despite the RMT union saying it was not targeting festive travellers in its latest strike.
Andrew Haines, the Network Rail chief executive, said: “RMT suggestions that their planned strike action over the festive period is not targeting Christmas would be laughable were the consequences not so painful to so many people, including on Christmas Eve.
“The RMT is causing needless misery to its own members, to the railway and to the country’s economy. I am so sorry that our passengers are having to bear the brunt of the RMT’s needless strike when a fair offer is on the table and when only a third of the workforce have rejected it.
“Our offer guarantees jobs and gives everyone a decent pay-rise of 9% and more. Two of our three trade unions have already accepted and the RMT needs to think again.”
Great Western Railway has confirmed that the last train to leave Swindon station on Christmas Eve will be the 4:09pm to Westbury.
If you’re travelling from Swindon to London Paddington, you can catch the first train at 6.08am and the last will leave at 3.45pm. For the opposite route, London to Swindon, the last train will leave the capital at 3.13pm arriving into Swindon at 4.04pm.
LAST TRAINS
Cheltenham 1:28pm
Gloucester 3:28pm
Bristol Temple Meads 3:30pm
Swansea 3:41pm
London Paddington 3:45pm
Bristol Parkway 4:06pm
Westbury 4:09pm
Meanwhile hundreds of members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) working for Great Western Railway will also walk out from noon on Wednesday December 28th to 11.59pm on Thursday December 29th meaning it will be a while yet before rail travel gets back to any state of normal.
