RAILWAY workers gathered outside Swindon station for the first day of a national strike which brought the national network to its knees.

Those on the picket line gathered at 5am as GWR put on less than half of its usual services.

They were among of thousands of railway and underground staff who are striking on three days this week.

On Saturday, the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union confirmed that strikes at Network Rail and 13 train operators - including GWR - would go ahead today and on Thursday and Saturday, June 25, as well as the London Underground today.

RMT said in a statement: "Despite the best efforts of our negotiators no viable settlements to the disputes have been created.

"It has to be re-stated that the source of these disputes is the decision by the Tory government to cut £4bn of funding from our transport systems - £2bn from national rail and £2bn from Transport for London."

It says the government's decisions include:

  • "Savaging" the Railway Pension Scheme and the TFL scheme, cutting benefits, making staff work longer, and poorer in retirement, while paying increased contributions.
  • Thousands of job cuts across the rail networks.
  • Attacking terms, conditions and working practices in a form of internal fire and re-hire.
  • Cutting real pay for most of the union's members through lengthy pay freezes and below RPI inflation pay proposals

The impact on journey times is going to be felt throughout the rest of the week, according to GWR managing director Mark Hopwood.

He said: "It's going to be a very difficult week for us, we've got industrial action planned by the RMT trade union, and that's going to directly affect our train service on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 

"But it will also knock on from Monday right through to Sunday in terms of early morning, late evening and the number of trains that we can run during the day."

Mark Lever, from South Western Railway, told BBC Radio Wiltshire it is expecting to have more than 2,000 members of staff on strike. 

He said: "Network rail colleagues are also going to be on strike, and they're the people who provide traffic lights and the maintenance for the tracks that enables us to run safely. 

"It is unprecedented - the scale of challenge that we're looking at for this week."

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said on Saturday that the union had been gunning for industrial action for weeks and accused it of "punishing millions of innocent people" who will be affected by the strikes.

He warned the country’s biggest rail union that this week’s strikes will be a "huge act of self-harm" which could jeopardise the future of the industry.

"I think it is a huge act of self-harm to go on strike at the moment. I don’t believe the workers are anywhere near as militant as their unions who are leading them up the garden path. They are gunning for this strike. It is completely unnecessary."

However, Labour said ministers needed to step in to prevent the network from “grinding to a halt” in a dispute over pay, conditions and job losses.