Industrial action on the UK’s railway network will see a complete shutdown of the Merseyrail network on three separate days. Tony McDonough reports

No services will run on the Merseyrail network on Tuesday, June 21, Thursday, June 23, and Saturday, June 25, due to the national rail strike.

Although Merseyrail staff will not take part in the industrial action, Network Rail employees will. They are members of the RMT union and voted in favour of industrial action in May.

Network Rail operates the signalling systems and provides crucial maintenance which allow services to run safely. Merseyrail is therefore unable to provide any train services on days where industrial action is taking place.

READ MORE: Merseyrail set to restore 15-minute services

Due to the industrial action lasting 24 hours, there will also be knock on effects on the day after each industrial action date except for Sunday, June 26. Services on Wednesday 22 and Friday 24 will begin later. Staff taking part in the action will not begin working until 7am.

There will be some limited rail replacement buses provided on these two mornings before the normal train service begins after 7am. Click for more details. On the days of action there will be no trains or rail replacement buses.

Phil James, North West route director at Network Rail, said: “We continue to meet with the trades unions to discuss their pay concerns. And we will do all we can to avoid strike action which has the potential to cause misery to hundreds of thousands of Merseyrail passengers.”

Andy Heath, managing director of Merseyrail, added: “Our network is unable to function without the support of Network Rail signalling and maintenance staff. They play a critical role in the safe operation of our train services.”

All annual and monthly season ticket holders will automatically receive the value of a day’s travel for each date affected.