West Midlands Trains potential strike Fri/Sat 22/23May

[Peter Mugridge]

Roll on GBR for some better joined up thinking on service cover in disruption / resilience planning and also ticket acceptance.

If it's all one company, wouldn't any strike knacker everything rather than just a select group of services, though?

 

[Merle Haggard]

On the Avanti I was on, the guard said that they were accepting LNR tickets but only for standard class and they wouldn'tbe declassifying first. I think his point was basically not to push it!

Perhaps this is a general Avanti 'acceptance' restriction because of course no-one can have an LNR first class ticket.
I might even have some sympathy with Avanti for this restriction. Admittedly some time ago now I boarded a Euston train at Piccadilly to find it full to almost standing in the First. I later found out this was because Avanti had given ticket acceptance to EMR ticket holders travelling from Sheffield.
What happened was that all these transferred passengers made such good use of the Avanti First Class menu and offers that, by the time they reached my coach (the then-unreserved nearest Standard) the crew had run out of everything including hot drinks and we received no service.
Might sound fair enough; but remember, the EMR offer in First was coffee in a paper cup and choice of a packet of 2 Walker's shortbread or 2 Biscoff biscuits. Possibly a sandwich in the evening peak. Did seem that people were exploiting Avanti after being helped out by them.

 

[pokemonsuper9]

If it's all one company, wouldn't any strike knacker everything rather than just a select group of services, though?

I think they could choose to strike with whatever divisions they want.

 

[Sparks807Evo]

If it's all one company, wouldn't any strike knacker everything rather than just a select group of services, though?

A good point that you raise. I would expect would be more akin to London Underground where you have divisions / break-up by depots. This is before considering how staff contracts are going to work at the start of GBR given the web of T&Cs etc. - presumably with the Integrated Business Units. So I expect you could still have some depots not strike and others do based on local contracts / arrangements. Airlines sometimes have this happen, with individual bases striking.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The kind of corporate attitude where that is seen as a remotely acceptable arrangement (either for Avanti to propose or WMT to accept) needs to be stamped out.

The vast majority of people will be none the wiser as to this arrangement and many will have bought new tickets at significant cost or cancelled their tickets and driven instead.

What an utter own goal by the industry.

It's presumably because Avanti would suffer significant losses from people buying WMT dedicated tickets instead. I've certainly done that!

 

[185143]

It's presumably because Avanti would suffer significant losses from people buying WMT dedicated tickets instead. I've certainly done that!

Surely they could work out from the scan data how many WMT tickets have been used, and then bill WMT accordingly?

 

[pokemonsuper9]

Surely they could work out from the scan data how many WMT tickets have been used, and then bill WMT accordingly?

Have Avanti sorted out their ticket scanning dispute with the Train Managers yet?
If not then WMT wouldn't have much of a bill to pay.

 

[Watershed]

It's presumably because Avanti would suffer significant losses from people buying WMT dedicated tickets instead. I've certainly done that!

Tough luck for them. Being part of an integrated railway network involves doing things that don’t always maximise income but instead maximise goodwill or simply gets people where they need to go.

Let’s put it another way - why should people have been forced to pay more (even if they only planned their trip after the strike was known) just because WMT weren’t running a proper service?

 

[Omnishambles]

Have Avanti sorted out their ticket scanning dispute with the Train Managers yet?
If not then WMT wouldn't have much of a bill to pay.

Thought that was a CrossCountry dispute, certainly I’ve been scanned pretty much 50/50 on my trips to and from London. Predominantly Liverpool crews

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Tough luck for them. Being part of an integrated railway network involves doing things that don’t always maximise income but instead maximise goodwill or simply gets people where they need to go.

Let’s put it another way - why should people have been forced to pay more (even if they only planned their trip after the strike was known) just because WMT weren’t running a proper service?

Indeed, but aren't Avanti still under private ownership? Either way, they did agree to ticket acceptance anyway. My bug bear is around not advertising is, or certainly not making staff fully aware of it, causing stress where it wasn't necessary.

 

[blimmo]

I am very unhappy with unadvertised acceptance: it means that anyone trying to do the right thing will be forced to wait but those who just chance it get a faster journey.

 

[Bungle965]

Have Avanti sorted out their ticket scanning dispute with the Train Managers yet?

No!

 

[Bletchleyite]

I am very unhappy with unadvertised acceptance: it means that anyone trying to do the right thing will be forced to wait but those who just chance it get a faster journey.

Same. I could see a case for it to only be offered for WMT tickets purchased before the strike was announced, but not for it to be unadvertised entirely.

 

[Joey Beauchamp]

Another shout out to the helpful, well trained staff at Rugby station. I stupidly put my return part into the barriers, so I could pop out to get an orange Calipo. Obviously it swallowed it and the man on the gateline cracked open the ticket barrier and sorted through the tickets to find mine. He even said to go to the shop and come back instead of waiting. I'll speak to staff next time rather than putting it in (it was a hot day and my brain wasn't working!)

 

[317 forever]

It's presumably because Avanti would suffer significant losses from people buying WMT dedicated tickets instead. I've certainly done that!

A few years ago I had a ticket that was valid from Crewe to London Euston only on WMT. As there had been an incident earlier in the day, causing several long delays, they allowed us to use Avanti. I therefore reached Euston a few minutes earlier than had there been a perfect service and the WMT train been on time!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 May 2026 ==

And the "animals on the railway between Watford Junction and Milton Keynes Central" incident earlier this morning won't have helped either:
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/milton-keynes-central-20260523/

They thought it would be safe and more considerate to walk on the line on a strike day, but were not expecting trains still to be running

 

[VT 390]

It looks like there are further strikes on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th July.

Incident: Industrial action WMT | National Rail

Industrial action to affect London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Industrial Action

Strike action by membe

www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk

 

[pokemonsuper9]

It looks like there are further strikes on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th July.

Incident: Industrial action WMT | National Rail

Industrial action to affect London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Railway. Find details of all current incidents on National Rail Enquiries.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

Industrial Action

Strike action by membe

www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk

Ah that's a shame, was hoping to tick off the Camp Hill line that Saturday.
Maybe this could do with it's own thread, or the title of this one being updated now there's more dates?

 

[VT 390]

Ah that's a shame, was hoping to tick off the Camp Hill line that Saturday.
Maybe this could do with it's own thread, or the title of this one being updated now there's more dates?

Created a new thread for the new dates:

West Midlands Trains Industrial Action 10th & 11th July 2026

It looks like there are further strikes on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th July. https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/service-disruptions/industrial-action-wmt-20260703/ https://www.westmidlandsrailway.co.uk/travel-information/journey-planning/service-disruption/industrial-action Ah that's a shame...

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