TWO more days of strikes by railway workers will affect train services for the rest of this week.

The RMT and TSSA unions are carrying out industrial action on Thursday and Saturday, which will reduce the amount of journeys available by rail.

These strikes are happening because the two unions have raised concerns about low pay, job cuts, and changes to terms and conditions.

They want salaries to be bumped up to reflect the rising cost of living.

Paul Gentleman from GWR explained: “This week will be a disruptive and challenging week on the railway network for passengers.

“GWR services will be severely disrupted and a reduced timetable will be in operation [which] will vary from each of the strike days, and the days in between the strikes.

“Some parts of the GWR network will have no services at all. Trains will start later and finish earlier, and all journeys must be completed by 6.30pm on strike days.

“Once again, we must advise customers to only travel on our services if absolutely necessary. If you can find an alternative way to make your journey, please do so.

“The rail industry is working hard to resolve this dispute and it is in discussions with the unions and hopefully a resolution can be found soon.

“We’d like to thank you for your patience. We know how important our train services are to people and we know how disruptive this industrial action is.”

The RMT is worried about plans by Network Rail to cut 2,500 maintenance jobs as the company tries to save £2bn over the next two years.

The union insists those jobs are "safety critical" but Network Rail countered that there would be at most 2,000 job losses and they would all be voluntary.

It says it would not consider any changes that would make the railways less safe, but stresses modernisation is needed.

The TSSA is demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and no changes to terms and conditions which it hasn't agreed to.

The government says the railway system needs modernisation and has to be financially sustainable for the long term.

It added that £16 billion of taxpayers' money was used to support the railways during the Covid pandemic but, with passenger numbers still down by one-fifth, it says changes are needed.

Check up-to-date train timetables at gwr.com