UK rail strike: second day of action to go ahead after talks fail again

RMT accuses government of ‘wrecking negotiations’ as operators and passengers prepare to face further disruption on Thursday

Talks to avert a second national rail strike collapsed in rancour as the two sides traded insults in a bitter war of words as millions of passengers faced another day of disruption.

In increasingly fraught negotiations, the head of the RMT hit out at the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, for “wrecking negotiations” in the dispute over pay, working conditions and proposed “modernisation” plans to cut costs after the pandemic.

The rail industry asked passengers to travel only if necessary on Thursday, when fewer than one in five trains in Great Britain are expected to run as 40,000 RMT members working for Network Rail and 13 train operating companies go on strike. Services will be sporadic and limited to mainlines and urban areas between the hours of 7.30am and 6.30pm.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, blamed the transport secretary for the failure of talks: “Grant Shapps has wrecked these negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw their letter threatening redundancy for 2,900 of our members.

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