The second of the two national rail strikes that were mentioned in our last train updates post (which you can read here) is happening this week, on Thursday 18th and Saturday 20th August.
This strike is by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA). This includes on board and station staff from Great Western Railway (GWR), and signallers and managers at Network Rail.
GWR will be running very few services on both days, with many services not running at all. Disruption is also expected on Friday 19th August. This means that, if you are planning on travelling by train on any of these days you may need to check whether your train is running or not before you travel. You should only travel if needed, and if not you should travel by a different method or make other arrangements.
GWR and Network Rail will be updating their journey planners and they will be contacting customers who have booked journeys directly about the changes to train lines. You can find more information from GWR here: http://www.gwr.com/strike
More detailed information for the impact on the services in our area are below:
On Thursday 18th, very few services will travel between Bristol Temple Meads and London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads and Exeter St Davids, Bristol Temple Meads and Gloucester, and Cardiff Central to Bath Spa (via Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads).
On Friday 19th, GWR will be running a few services which will start later than normal.
On Saturday 20th, Bristol Temple Meads station will be closed. Very few services will run between Bristol Parkway, Cardiff Central and London Paddington. No other services in the West of England will run.