INTERCITY RAIL SERVICES FACE DISRUPTION FROM STRIKES AND TRAIN FAULTS

Intercity rail passengers across Great Britain face potential disruption this summer owing to strike ballots on two major routes and cancelled services on a third. East Midlands Railway announced it will cancel approximately 20 fast trains daily between London, Sheffield and Nottingham because of reliability problems with its Hitachi class 810 fleet. Aslef, the train drivers' union, has called a strike ballot on LNER, which operates services between London and Scotland, after a pay deal fell through. Drivers are also voting on strike action at Avanti West Coast over pay.

East Midlands Railway stated that its class 810 trains, introduced to service this year after a three-year delay, have experienced what the operator described as "performance and reliability issues". The company also criticised Hitachi's maintenance of the existing class 222 fleet, saying this had "significantly impacted" its ability to run consistent intercity services. Will Rogers, EMR's managing director, stated the fleet's performance had "fallen below the levels we and our customers expect" and that the operator was working with Hitachi Rail to improve service consistency. Additional trains will operate with reduced capacity and are likely to be crowded.

The disruption comes as investigations continue into last month's fatal Bedford rail crash, in which one of EMR's class 810 trains stopped on the mainline, apparently due to a fault with the automatic warning system, before being struck by another EMR train that had passed a red light. Train drivers on the two other intercity mainlines running north from London could all be on strike by late August, according to union statements.