When are rail workers striking this month and can I get a refund on my train ticket?

Tens of thousands of rail and tube workers are due to walk out later this month in what has been described as the “biggest outbreak of industrial action in the UK since 1989”.

Union bosses are threatening to “shut down the system”, with major disruption expected across rail services and the London Underground, affecting events including Glastonbury Festival and the British Athletics Championships. 

When are the strikes happening?

The walk-out is set to kick off on June 21 with as many as 50,000 railway workers expected to strike and services across Network Rail and the London Underground due to be affected. 

As many as 40,000 workers on railway services will then strike again on June 23 and June 25, according to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.

However, union bosses said the action was due to affect rail services “for the entire week where the three days of action have been called”. This is because trains may not be at the right stations after the walk-outs take place. 

Which rail operators will be affected?

Only a fifth of mainline rail services are expected to be running over the three-day strike period. The rail services disrupted are:

• Chiltern Railways
• Cross Country Trains
• Greater Anglia
• LNER
• East Midlands Railway
• c2c
• Northern Trains
• South Eastern
• South Western Railway
• Great Western Railway
• TransPennine Express
• Avanti West Coast
• West Midlands Trains

What are workers striking over?

Rail workers have voted to strike after a row with Network Rail over pay freezes and proposed job cuts. RMT claims that as many as 2,500 jobs are at risk and that workers have been subject to years of pay-freezes. 

RMT General Secretary Mike Lynch said of the action: “We have a cost-of-living crisis, and it is unacceptable for railway workers to either lose their jobs or face another year of a pay freeze.”

National Rail has responded by saying the union “must recognise we are a public body and any pay increase has to be affordable for taxpayers”. 

Chief executive Andrew Haines said: “We cannot expect to take more than our fair share of public funds, and so we must modernise our industry to put it on a sound financial footing for the future. Failure to modernise will only lead to industry decline and more job losses in the long run.”