CrossCountry customers are being warned of significant travel disruption on Saturday 18 October, despite the suspension of planned industrial action by the RMT union.

The strike would have seen union members – including Train Managers and Senior Conductors - declining to work. Although after discussions this week the union has agreed to suspend the strike on Saturday 18 October, rail industry timelines mean it is too late to reinstate a normal timetable on CrossCountry services this weekend.

This means that although the strike has been suspended, only a significantly reduced number of CrossCountry services will be able to run to the South West, South Coast and north of York.

Though trains will run with as many carriages as possible, services are expected to be significantly busier than usual and will also cease much earlier in the day - so passengers are advised to plan return journeys carefully.

No CrossCountry services will call at Coventry, Wolverhampton, Durham, Chesterfield, Basingstoke, Dunbar, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Alnmouth, Worcestershire Parkway, Wakefield Westgate, or Morpeth, with customers encouraged to instead use shorter-distance services.

Services between Birmingham and Manchester will run every two hours.
Services between Birmingham and Bristol will run every two hours and Bristol and Birmingham every 1.5 hours.
Services between Birmingham, Leeds and York will run every two hours (with two services extending to Edinburgh and two services starting from Edinburgh).
Services between Birmingham and Reading will run every three hours (with one service extending to Southampton).
Services between Reading and Birmingham will run every two hours (with one service starting at Southampton).

There will be no services between Birmingham, Leicester, Cambridge and Stansted and Nottingham to Cardiff. In the Southwest, there will be no services south of Bristol and in Scotland there will be no services north of Edinburgh.

CrossCountry’s Managing Director, Shiona Rolfe, said: “Though we are pleased to have made progress in our negotiations with RMT colleagues, I am sincerely sorry for the significant disruption that customers will nonetheless experience this Saturday 18 October. Timetabling processes require train operators to finalise planned services several days in advance, which means that we are not able to reinstate a normal timetable for CrossCountry services in time for Saturday.

“I would urge all those planning to travel on CrossCountry routes this Saturday to check options to change or cancel their journey at no cost on the CrossCountry website.”

There is also planned engineering works over the weekend, which will also impact certain CrossCountry services. Full details can be found on the CrossCountry website.

Passengers planning to travel with CrossCountry on Saturday 18 October should check their journey with National Rail Enquiries or on the CrossCountry website: www.crosscountrytrains.co.uk .

Information on delay repay and alternative travel options are available at the same link.