A TPE Nova train

RMT strike action to impact rail services on Sunday 24 April – with no TransPennine Express services running between the North West and Scotland

There will be further disruption to rail services this weekend with strike action by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union due to cause widespread disruption to TransPennine Express (TPE) services.

The train company will only be operating a small number of trains on its North and South routes and is strongly recommending customers avoid travel and travel either side of the strike date instead.

Due to a combination of the strikes and engineering work on the West Coast Mainline, there will be no TPE services running between Manchester/Liverpool Lime Street, Preston and Scotland on Sunday and customers should seek alternative transport or travel on Saturday or Monday instead.

Network Rail is carrying out engineering work between Carlisle and Edinburgh/Glasgow on Saturday and Sunday, with a replacement bus service running between Carlisle, Lockerbie Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Anyone heading to a major event by rail this Sunday, such as the Hull FC v Catalans Dragons Rugby League game and Liverpool v Everton Premier League match, should seek alternative transport.

More information on the limited services TPE is intending to operate on Sunday can be found at tpexpress.co.uk/travel-updates/strike and anyone making an essential journey on either the North or South route should plan very carefully and allow extra time to travel.

Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience Director for TransPennine Express said: “Action by RMT continues to cause disruption to our customers’ journeys.

“With a further strike planned for this Sunday, we are once again advising those customers to travel either side of Sunday as we will only be running a limited service on two of our routes, with no TPE trains at all on the West Coast Mainline.”

Further strikes by RMT are planned to take place on Sundays up to and including 5 June, and on the following full weekends:  Saturday 30 April and Sunday 1 May and Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 June.

Ticket acceptance is in place with Northern, Avanti West Coast (between Wigan and Carlisle), CrossCountry (between Leeds and Edinburgh), East Midlands Railway, Lumo, LNER (between York and Edinburgh), ScotRail, Hull Trains (between Hull and Doncaster) and Transport for Wales services. Ticket acceptance is also in place for FirstBus services in West Yorkshire for customers who may need to use a bus service to complete a rail journey.

Some exclusions will apply and full details are available via the TPE website.