Warnings of travel chaos- as the Easter weekend clashes with another rail strike
There's over 3 million journeys expected to happen on the roads today- as many break up for the long weekend.
But, with another rail strike happening today over an ongoing dispute between the RMT and Northern about the role of train guards, we’re being warned this could add even more pressure.
It’s one of the busiest days of the year for being on the roads.
Rod Dennis is from the RAC and had this message for us:
“Easter’s one of the biggest getaway weekends of the year, with Christmas such a distant memory drivers and families are desperate to get behind the wheel of a car.
“Train strikes or any sort of rail disruption tends to force more people into road based transport, so buses are making up for trains not running.
“The message is, it only takes a single accident or breakdown sometimes for accidents to start occurring.
“So our messages to drivers this weekend is absolutely get prepared, make sure your car is ready for a long trip, just do some basic checks like making sure there’s enough oil in there, enough screen wash, check the condition of the tyres.”
Sharon Keith, our Regional Director, said: “We know how important rail services are for those travelling around the Easter bank holidays and we will be operating as many of our services as we can to help get our customers where they need to be.
“We have planned to provide around 70% of our usual services between the hours of 7am and 7pm.
“It is vitally important that our customers plan carefully for their Eater getaways on Thursday as we will have few services in the early morning and late evening. Our advice is to plan ahead, allow extra time for travel and check for service updates on our website.”
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“Every single effort that RMT has made to reach a negotiated settlement with Northern Rail over safe operation and safe staffing has been kicked back in our faces. No one should be in any doubt, this dispute is about putting the safety of the travelling public before the profits of the private train companies.
“It is frankly ludicrous that we have been able to negotiate long-term arrangements in Scotland and Wales that protect the guards and passenger safety but we are being denied the same opportunities with rail companies in England.
“Theresa May and Chris Grayling are happy to stand aside and cheer on overseas rail companies like Arriva that rip-off the British passenger with eye-watering fare increases to subsidise their domestic transport operations while throwing the guards off our trains. If it’s good enough for Wales and Scotland to put safety first then it’s good enough for the rest of the UK.
“RMT remains ready for the talks we have suggested.”
There’s more information on rail services in place here