July train strikes: How 24-hour strikes in height of summer will impact Leeds services

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at train companies and Network Rail will walk out for 24 hours on July 27.

Union leaders made the announcement after rejecting a new offer from Network Rail which they described as 'paltry'.

This could have a major impact coming at the height of the summer holidays with many families due to rely on rail services to get away.

It comes after 40,000 workers walked out over three days in June, halting 80 per cent of services and causing travel chaos across the country.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "The train operating companies remain stubborn and are refusing to make any new offer which deals with job security and pay.

"Strike action is the only course open to us to make both the rail industry and government understand that this dispute will continue for as long as it takes, until we get a negotiated settlement.

"The public who will be inconvenienced by our strike action need to understand that it is the government's shackling of Network Rail and the TOCs that means the rail network will be shut down for 24 hours."

The strike is expected to include 40,000 workers – around 20,000 from Network Rail, including signalling and track maintenance workers – and the remainder from 14 train operating companies and the 13 that took action last month.

That means key service providers in and out of Leeds such as TransPennine, Northern, LNER and CrossCountry will all be running skeleton services.

Network Rail has hit out at the RMT accusing the union of choosing July 27 to disrupt the opening of the Commonwealth Games, which is due to get underway in Birmingham on July 28.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said:

“It is incredibly frustrating the RMT has again chosen to disrupt our passengers, and even more so that they haven’t even put what was a fair and affordable two-year pay offer to their members.

"It is also deeply worrying that these strikes have clearly been designed to disrupt spectators heading to the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on July 28, an event of huge national significance.

“We have been clear that we can only fund an increase from our own budgets, and the only way we can afford that is by modernising working practices. The RMT’s rejection of our latest offer can only mean they want a pay increase to be funded either by more taxpayer support or higher passenger fares, neither of which we think are fair.

“We urge the RMT to call this action off, get back round the table with us and show some willingness to compromise.”

Northern took to social media this morning to warn passengers that significant disruption should be expected.

The RMT union has announced strikes for Wednesday, July 27 which will impact the rail network across the country," Northern tweeted.

"We’re working on what this will mean for our services but significant disruption should be expected. We will update here and on our website when more is known."