Rail passengers warned of disruption during strike

Rail passengers in parts of the West Midlands are advised to only travel if necessary later this week during two days of planned strikes.

The walkout will affect West Midlands Railway's (WMR) services in Birmingham and the Black Country, Wolverhampton, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire on 22 and 23 May.

The operator said "a very limited service" would be running because of the action, which has been organised by members of the TSAA trade union.

Managing director Ian McConnell said: "We encourage TSSA to continue talks with us to reach a resolution to this dispute." The BBC has also approached the union.

A reduced timetable will operate on both dates, with no trains after 19:00 BST on the Friday, and a later start of 07:00 the following morning.

On both 22 and 23 May, no WMR trains will run on routes via Birmingham Snow Hill, Birmingham's Camp Hill Line or between Nuneaton and Leamington Spa.

WMR services on the Shrewsbury and Hereford lines will also not run.

Other routes with a limited service are:

• The Cross City Line (Lichfield Trent Valley to Redditch/Bromsgrove via Birmingham New Street) - two trains per hour

• Wolverhampton to Walsall via Birmingham New Street - one train per hour

• Rugeley Trent Valley to Birmingham International via Birmingham New Street - one train per hour

WMR warned there could be additional cancellations and fewer carriages, and minor disruption also expected on 24 May because of the displacement of trains.

McConnell added: "We are doing all we can to minimise the impact as far as possible and apologise to customers for the inconvenience.

"However, where services are running, we advise customers to only travel if necessary and to allow more time for their journey."

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