East Midlands Railway (EMR) has confirmed a significantly reduced timetable will operate on Saturday 1, 8 and 15 August after members of the RMT union announced further strike action.<\/p>\n
On the affected days, trains on EMR’s Intercity and Connect routes will run between 7am and before 7pm, with customers advised to check their journeys before travelling. Regional services will continue to operate as normal.<\/p>\n
To increase capacity during the strikes, EMR will temporarily declassify First Class on its Intercity services, allowing all passengers to use the additional seating. The change will only apply while the strike timetable is in place.<\/p>\n
Customers holding First Class tickets or season tickets for the affected dates can contact EMR’s customer service team to arrange a refund. Those who booked through third-party retailers should contact their ticket provider directly.<\/p>\n
Alongside the strike dates, the RMT has also notified EMR of Action Short of Strike (ASOS) from 2-7 August, 9-14 August and from 16 August until further notice. The operator warned this could result in short-notice cancellations and timetable changes.<\/p>\n
Philippa Cresswell, customer experience director at East Midlands Railway said: “We’re sorry to customers whose journeys will be affected by this industrial action.<\/p>\n
“We know the disruption this will cause and are advising customers to only travel if their journey is essential on Saturday 1, 8 and 15 August, as we will be operating a significantly reduced timetable starting at 07:00 and finishing before 19:00.<\/p>\n
“To help as many customers as possible during this period, we will temporarily declassify First Class on our Intercity services so that everyone can make use of the full seating capacity available. This is a temporary measure for the duration of the strike timetable only, after which our usual First Class arrangements will resume.<\/p>\n
“We remain fully committed to offering a high-quality experience to those customers travelling with us. EMR continues to engage in constructive discussions with the RMT with a focus on resolving this dispute as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Passengers are being urged to travel only if essential, with services cut back and First Class temporarily suspended on three Saturdays in August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266702,"featured_media":2096789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47996],"coauthors":[127717],"class_list":["post-2113353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transport","tag-east-midlands","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n