Virgin Trains serves the East Coast Main Line which includes railway stations at Newark Northgate, Edinburgh and London King’s Cross.
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Members of the RMT walked out on Monday and were due to stay out until the weekend.
Following an offer from the RMT to suspend the action if Southern returned to talks without any preconditions, Acas announced that the strike will be suspended.
The RMT has accused Virgin Trains of attempting to “bulldoze through a package of cash-led measure that would decimate jobs, working conditions and threaten the safety regime that now ensures a guard on every train”.
There’s a glimmer of brightness though, as the five-day strike could be suspended on Thursday and Friday.
“However, the good news is that the timetable we are operating is 60% of our normal service and these are running well”.
The present strike timetable – which saw 40 per cent of Southern’s existing services cut – will remain in operation through today and tomorrow.
For any updates go to www.southernrailway.com for further information.
Talks to try to end the industrial dispute on the Southern rail network are to resume later after three days of action by members of the RMT union.
“Bexhill rail travellers have been experiencing short-notice cancellations and disruption for many months as a result of this ongoing dispute”, he said before the strike was called off.
The RMT stated that Eurostar have failed to honour an agreement made in 2008 over conditions for their staff.
The union offered an olive branch to management in the Southern dispute on Wednesday, saying the strike would be suspended on Thursday and Friday if they agreed to urgent talks without pre-conditions. “We will now be considering the massive mandate for action delivered by our members in this ballot and the union remains available for serious talks”.
“The ball is now in their court”.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: “There is absolutely no excuse for the RMT strikes which are created to stop essential improvements of passengers’ journeys”.
We all know that everything concerning Southern Rail is a complete mess at the moment, and the latest strike wasn’t filling passengers with any hope.
“The RMT is causing yet more misery for our passengers, and we call on them to let this strike be the last”. “That makes a mockery of the negotiation process and proves that they have no intention of ending this dispute regardless of the cost”.
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She said: “We’ve now recognised that the DfT needs to play a bigger role”.
