ChatterBank2 mins ago
Train Strikes This Week
Does anyone know what happens to rail freight transport during the strike days this week? I'm thinking in terms of the petrochemical products transported from the oil refineries near me and such things as aggregates that still seem to be moved around the country by train. Looking at Wikipedia, it seems that even Asda and Tesco shift stuff around by train! Could these train drivers be on strike too?
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The train drivers' union, ASLEF, isn't involved in the current round of strikes. So, theoretically, all freight can keep moving.
However signallers who're in the RMT will be striking, meaning that managers will be trying to cover for them where possible. That will enable some lines to remain open to freight traffic, as well as to limited passenger services.
However the plans for most rail operations seem to be restricted to roughly 'office hours' on the strike days (presumably, in part, because there aren't enough managers to man the signal boxes for 24 hours), so many freight trains won't actually be able to run as they're timetabled outside of those hours.
However signallers who're in the RMT will be striking, meaning that managers will be trying to cover for them where possible. That will enable some lines to remain open to freight traffic, as well as to limited passenger services.
However the plans for most rail operations seem to be restricted to roughly 'office hours' on the strike days (presumably, in part, because there aren't enough managers to man the signal boxes for 24 hours), so many freight trains won't actually be able to run as they're timetabled outside of those hours.
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