Industrial action by union RMT will take place on Saturday the 5th, Monday the 7th and Wednesday the 9th of November and will impact passengers travelling through Liverpool Lime Street Station. Advice has been given to passengers to expect a substantially reduced rail service and to plan travel ahead as trains will finish much earlier than normal.

The strike action will bring disruption once again as just 2 trains will depart from Liverpool Lime Street each hour, on a normal non-strike day that number would be approximately 13 every hour.

Only 50% of the national rail network will be operational during the strike action and will see just 20% of trains running.

Timetables have been published for Saturday the 5th and Monday the 7th of November and can be found on the National Rail journey planner. Timetables for Wednesday the 9th of November will be available from Saturday the 5th.

Liverpool Lime Street will see its last trains depart between 3pm and 5pm and final arrivals will be by 6.30pm. The station will be fully closed by 7pm on all strike days.

People are being asked to only travel by train if it is completely necessary during the RMT strike action. Advice for passengers who do need to travel by train on strike days is to check their travel plans via www.nationalrail.co.uk.

Passengers can also check via their rail operators as follows:

• Avanti West Coast: Strike Action Travel Information page
• Northern: Strike Important Information Page
• TransPennine Express: Strike Action Check Before You Travel page
• CrossCountry: Industrial Action page
• East Midlands Railway: Strike Information page
• Transport for Wales: Rail Industrial Action page

Thousands of fully qualified and specially trained backup staff are being called to action across the country in order to support the operation of vital rail services during the strike action.

Merseyrail is not part of the industrial action, however, its services will still be affected and will see limited services in operation on strike days. The rail operator will run hourly services between 7.30am and 6.30pm only and will only be able to serve some stations – to find out more please visit Merseyrail’s information page.

Phil James, Network Rail’s North West route director, said: It’s hugely frustrating that once again rail passengers across the North West will be disrupted due to unnecessary strike action despite our best efforts to reach a compromise with the unions. This means once again many North West routes won’t be served at all, causing misery for millions of rail passengers. With a fraction of the usual workforce available, including signallers who safely move trains around the network, there will be a severely limited service during the RMT strike action on the 5, 7 and 9 November.

“I can only apologise for the impact another RMT strike will have on people’s lives. It is frustrating to yet again ask our passengers to change their plans and only make absolutely necessary journeys. I’d also please ask anyone who does try to travel to be kind to our staff who are working – all of them will be trying to provide the best advice they can for people while a very limited train service is running.”

Passengers are also being advised of further disruption in the mornings on days following each strike as employees return to their positions.

Additional industrial action will also take place on Sunday the 6th of November as RMT take further industrial action by Avanti West Coast train managers which will lead to substantially reduced services. Passengers are advised that the services which are able to operate are expected to be extremely busy.