[Economics]Train strikes: Disruption expected as rail workers walk out

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Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and hotels on the island of Rhodes, according to Greece's fire service.

Private boats have joined the Greek coastguard in helping to pick up people from beaches on the east of the island.

Greek navy vessels are also reported to be heading to the area, which is popular with tourists.

Greece's deputy fire chief said the fires on Rhodes are the most difficult his service is currently facing.

No injuries have been reported, according to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece.

The ministry said visitors are being evacuated safely from affected areas of Rhodes - which represent less than 10% of the "total tourist capacity" - and are being redirected to other hotels on the island.

Five helicopters and 173 firefighters are operating in the area, with three hotels in the Kiotari area reported to have been damaged by fire.

One British woman said she was evacuated from the hotel she was staying at with her sister and daughter, but was now stuck on a beach with hundreds of others in the severe heat.

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"There's just a small shack here and there's so many of us," Becky Mulligan told the BBC. "There's children, it's the middle of the day, we are just stuck here with no help, it's disgusting."

Simon Wheatley said ash had begun falling onto his pizza when he was eating.

"The hotel said this was normal and there was no need to worry as they were in contact with the authorities about the situation," he told the BBC.

His hotel was later evacuated.

"We saw that a beach bar that we were at just the day before had burnt down. The smoke was so bad. We had to leave two bags of luggage."

Travel company TUI said a small number of its hotels had been affected and it was relocating customers to alternative accommodation as a precaution.

Jet2 also said it was aware of the situation in Rhodes and was asking customers to follow local guidance.

Members of the RMT union at 14 rail companies are striking on Thursday as part of a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Passengers should expect large areas of the rail network to have little or no services, National Rail said.

The operators are based in England but some run services into Wales and Scotland.

In addition, train drivers in the Aslef union are not working overtime at 15 train companies between 17 and 22 July.

The extent of Thursday's RMT disruption will vary around the country, with some services starting late and finishing much earlier than normal.

There will be further strikes on 22 and 29 July.

Aslef's action, which will run until Saturday, is not a full strike but could cause some reduced timetables and last-minute cancellations.Meanwhile, rail users have sent in 100,000 responses to a consultation over proposed ticket office closures in England.

The plans, which have faced criticism, are the latest flashpoint for train operators, which are also in a deadlocked dispute with unions over reforms.

When are the train strikes and which lines are affected?
Following the impact of the Covid pandemic, the industry faces pressure from the government to cut costs.

The latest proposals presented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, included a backdated pay rise of 5%, followed by 4% this year.

This was in exchange for changes to working practices to be discussed with individual operators.

The dispute reached an impasse when the RMT rejected the offer in April. The RDG continues to call on the union to give its members a vote on the offer.

RMT boss Mick Lynch said "there are conditions in this offer that we can't live with", and ministers had not granted the operators permission to negotiate further.

But RDG boss Jacqueline Starr said the existing "very good" offer remained on the table, and the RDG was "very open to continuing conversations".

She added that the industry "can't afford for the industry to stand still", and would "continue with reform".

Closures
Train firms are pressing ahead with plans to close the majority of ticket offices in England.

The plans have faced criticism from disability campaigners and unions which are trying to block the reforms.

The Transport Focus watchdog called the response to its consultation, which is running until Wednesday 26 July, "huge" so far.

However, it said it was too soon to say whether the responses were mostly for or against the proposed closures.

Inside London, the consultation is being run by London Travelwatch.

Five Labour mayors are preparing a legal challenge, saying the 21-day timescale for the consultation was "totally inadequate".

Under the proposals, some ticket kiosks would remain in large stations, but elsewhere staff will be on concourses to sell tickets, offer travel advice and help people with accessibility.

However, Mr Lynch said that some stations would "only get staff for two hours, so if you're an elderly person travelling off-peak, there will be no-one there to assist you".

He added that 2,300 station staff are "not being moved from behind glass to assist passengers" but instead would be made redundant "en masse".Last week, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle challenged rail minister Huw Merriman over the planned closures.

Mr Merriman had said "no currently staffed station will become unstaffed" as a result of the proposals.

But Mr Hoyle said the railway station in his constituency, Chorley, would effectively become unstaffed after 4pm.

'Helping customers'
Ms Starr said on Wednesday that the planned closures were "about people bringing people out from behind the glass screens".

Staff would be "on the concourse, enabling a conversation with customers, enabling them to assist customers, have a dialogue, and also, when necessary, helping customers to navigate the ticket vending machines which would be on the platform," she said.

Ms Starr insisted the industry was "genuinely listening to the accessibility groups that have a number of concerns", and she was having meetings with the rail minister and disability groups.

When asked by the BBC on Wednesday if she would promise that every ticket currently available at ticket offices could be found on at a machine or online, including the least expensive, Ms Starr replied: "I'm not going to make promises that I can't keep."

She added: "We are working hard to ensure that where possible, every ticket is offered by a ticket vending machine".

Campaigner Natasha Winter, who set up the Save Stourbridge Ticket Office group, said when she found out about the consultation on the ticket office closures she was "absolutely outraged".

"We're talking about punishing and penalising the members of society who maybe can't use new technology," she said.

"The station is going to become less user-friendly for the whole community," she added.

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