Passengers served by c2c trains have been warned that there will be no services running on Friday 1 September.

c2c trains run between London Fenchurch Street (with limited services from London Liverpool Street) and Shoeburyness, Grays and Southend Central via Ockendon.

Strike action, planned by ASLEF, will see passengers services throughout England affected with services on the London Underground also threatened by the walkout.

Services could also be affected the following day, as action short of a strike has also been announced by ASLEF.

The ballot which called for strike action was the first time that c2c staff had been consulted since the national rail dispute began last year.

Services are expected to run on the two days of strike action planned by the RMT union, though the company has warned passengers to expect services to be busier and to allow extra time for their journeys as the may need to board a later train.

These are scheduled for Saturday 26 August and Saturday 2 September.

On those days, no services will run to London Liverpool Street or Stratford but, on the rest of the route, a near normal service is expected.

However, on Saturday 2 September, more disruption is expected and the usual timetable will be considerably reduced.

The planned service is as follows:

• Two trains per hour, London Fenchurch Street, calling all stations to Shoeburyness via Laindon
• Two trains per hour, London Fenchurch Street, calling all stations to Shoeburyness via Ockendon
• One train per hour, London Fenchurch Street, calling all stations to Grays via Rainham.

With the exception of early morning and late evening services, all trains will runs as eight carriages.  Customers planning to travel are advised to check before setting off on www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Rob Mullen, Managing Director at c2c, said, “It is really disappointing that we haven’t yet been able to reach an agreement with our Trade Unions. The impact of this ongoing action is significant for our customers and colleagues, and this will be felt further with our ASLEF colleagues now part of this dispute. We are sorry that we cannot run a service on 1 September and encourage our customers to plan ahead and allow extra time for their journeys on 2 September due to the reduced number of trains running.”