The development came after the chief executive of Southern trains stepped up his attacks on the RMT union, accusing it of repeatedly misleading the staff it represents.
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Eurostar rail workers will strike over two weekends in August in a dispute over work and life balance, the RMT union has said.
“For our passengers’ sake, we truly hope these talks will be productive and bring this long-running dispute to an end”, a spokseman for the firm said.
Separately, the RMT on Wednesday called off the rest of a five-day strike that began Monday on trains in southeast England, including London commuter services, over plans to downgrade the role of train conductors.
“On Friday we plan to revert to the revised timetable operating before the strike”.
For any updates go to www.southernrailway.com for further information.
An RMT spokesman told Transport Network that the union was prepared to discuss the company’s list of “exceptional circumstances” in the context of a wider attempt to resolve the dispute, although he feared that the circumstances were “as simple as a member of staff not being available”.
“Our train manager members at Eurostar have a heavy commitment to shift work and unsocial hours and are sick and exhausted of the company’s failure to honor agreements”, said RMT General Secretary Mick Cash.
But it is too late for many passengers – who face the same disruption tomorrow because Southern claims it can’t change the timetable in time. Passengers on affected services will be offered alternative bookings, it added.
According to Cash, members of Eurostar’s union are determined to sit at the negotiation table until the company guarantees them a harmonious work-life cycle.
Southern rail admitted that services will continue to be hit until the weekend as it struggles to open routes closed during the previous three days of strikes caused by a walkout of 400 train guards.
Eastbourne’s Chamber of Commerce bosses wrote a letter to GTR last week expressing fears that hundreds of thousands of visitors to Airbourne, one of the highlights of Eastbourne’s entertainments calendar, would not be able to travel be train because of the strike action. Some of those passengers have planned to have their own say on the matter, with a protest outside the Department for Transport (DfT) in central London.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “The company knows that prescriptive pre-conditions would not allow genuine talks to take place”.
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” This strike has to stop and has to stop now”.
