Strikes on Northern Rail have been suspended following two years of disruption for passengers.
This latest round of industrial action started on Saturday 25 August as part of an ongoing dispute over the role of train guards and rail safety involving the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.
Passengers have endured 47 days of strike action, with few services running on Saturdays.
The RMT union said that “substantial progress” had been made about the future of train guards, and that Northern, which runs services between cities including Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, had agreed to put a conductor on all trains.
However, the strike set for this Saturday will go ahead as it’s too short notice to change the timetable, Northern Rail said.
It means about 700 services will run, with very few trains after 5pm. The rail operator advised that customers should check before they travel.
The normal Saturday timetable will start again on 16 February.
“We warmly welcome RMT’s decision to suspend its strike action and recommence talks about what the future role of the conductor looks like,” said David Brown, managing director of Northern.
“We have been very clear in these discussions that there will be a conductor on all our trains now and into the future. We are looking forward to further positive talks with RMT about operational models moving ahead so that we can resolve their dispute and bring it to an end. The suspension of the RMT strikes is good news for customers and businesses across the North.”
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the union was happy to “break the deadlock”.
“Today’s offer of a guarantee of a conductor on all services throughout the duration of the franchise, including the new fleet, is the substantial progress we have been pushing for and has allowed RMT’s executive to take the decision to suspend the current action and allow for further talks to now take place with all stakeholders around the operational details.”
