Passengers urged to plan journeys ahead of rail strikes

PASSENGERS travelling to, from and within the Liverpool City Region are being urged to plan their journeys before they travel ahead of planned industrial action on January 8, 10 and 12.
The action is planned by members of the RMT union on Merseyrail and Northern rail services.
Merseyrail services are planned to run every 30 minutes, with the exception of the New Brighton to Liverpool services which will be every hour, from around 06:30 to 19:30, with a break in service between approximately 11:00 and 13:30.
Wirral services will start and terminate from James Street Station.
There will be no services on the following lines: Hunts Cross – Liverpool Central; Ellesmere Port – Hooton; Chester – Hooton, Kirkby – Liverpool Central and Ormskirk – Maghull.
Merseyrail tickets will be accepted on Arriva bus services, except between 07:00-09:00 and 16:00-18:00.
Passengers are strongly advised to check the Merseyrail website and Twitter@Merseyrail before travelling, as it is possible that timetables will change prior to, as well as during, strike action.
Northern rail will operate a reduced service, with the majority of available trains operating between 07:00 and 19:00.
Services on some routes will finish earlier and some stations will have no service, for more information please visit the Northern website.
Mersey Ferries are due to run as planned and valid cross river rail tickets will be accepted on the ferries on the three days.
Andy Heath, managing director at Merseyrail said:
“I am really disappointed with the strike action being taken by the RMT that will, after the previous strike days, yet again result in more disruption to your services.
“The timing of these latest strikes, three within a week, has been deliberately scheduled so as to cause as much impact as possible to you as a passenger.
“At the request of the Metro Mayor, we agreed to independent conciliation with the RMT union with no pre-conditions, but to date, the RMT have refused to meet without pre-conditions.”
Sharon Keith, regional director at Northern said: “We are doing everything we can to keep our customers on the move during the three days of industrial action affecting our network.
“We are still working to determine the exact services we will be able to operate, but those trains that do run will be on an amended timetable and are likely to be extremely busy.
“We ask our customers to plan carefully, allow extra time for travel and check the Northern website for the latest information.”