It is the longest train strike in the United Kingdom for nearly 50 years.
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Up to 300,000 passengers have been affected by the five-day walkout on Southern Rail which caused misery at the height of the morning rush-hour in the southeast.
But some areas in Surrey and Sussex will have no trains, while services will be even more packed than usual.
First-class carriages have been scrapped on all services across the week to create extra capacity, although the rail operator admitted that it…
And so begins the longest rail strike in almost 50 years as hundreds of thousands of Southern Rail passengers face chaos.
Trains have been disrupted for weeks because of industrial action and a shortage of staff, which the company blamed on high levels of sickness.
The RMT, which has organised the strike, claims that driver-operated trains are a safety risk for passengers and could pave the way for job cuts in the future – something that the operator Govia Thameslink denies.
Southern said it will run 60% of trains in an emergency timetable from Monday.
The ticket-buying public who are actually caught up in the Southern v RMT dispute can be forgiven for thinking that they are not being best served by either the company or the union.
An RMT press statement says: “Talks have now been collapsed by the Government and GTR and next week’s action goes ahead despite the fact that RMT made a solid proposal this morning to suspend the strike action if Govia matched the offer that had enabled industrial action on Scotrail to be suspended”.
A Southern spokesman said: “We are very sorry that there is further disruption to services as a result of the RMT conductor strike action this week, which means our service is limited on many routes”.
“We have a train operating company unable to make their trains run on time and a Government prioritising a battle with trade unions over fixing a failing franchise, and it is the tens of thousands of passengers having to endure miserable services who are paying the price”.
“The RMT leadership shows utter contempt to rail users by ruining their daily lives for the honour of pushing a button to close train doors”.
“We are seeing overcrowded trains, overcrowded platforms and we have got some genuine concerns about how they are going to operate in those circumstances”, he said.
“We are deeply disappointed and angry on behalf of our passengers at this stance, which will cause misery for our passengers and untold damage to the local economy in the South East”.
TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said the two-week ballot would start on Wednesday, August 10, and any action in September would be co-ordinated with “our sister rail unions to maximise the impact”.
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The RMT told Southern last Friday that it would pull back from this week’s action if a similar deal was offered.
