RMT announces suspension of strikes and agrees to enter further talks

Northern trains

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has agreed to suspend its strike action and recommence talks about the future role of the rail conductor, Northern.

This follows positive discussions between RMT and Northern - brokered by ACAS Chair, Sir Brendan Barber.

David Brown, Managing Director, Northern said: “We warmly welcome RMT’s decision to suspend its strike action and recommence talks about what the future role of the conductor looks like.

"We have been very clear in these discussions that there will be a conductor on all our trains now and into the future. We are looking forward to further positive talks with RMT about operational models moving ahead so that we can resolve their despite and bring it to an end.

"The suspension of the RMT strikes is good news for customers and businesses across the North."

Changing a strike timetable back to a normal timetable is a very complex task. It is unfortunately too late for Northern to reintroduce a full timetable in time for this Saturday (9 February).

Northern will run about 700 services with few services running after 5pm, with a full Saturday timetable from Saturday 16 February.