Rail workers are continuing their strike action this week in a dispute over pay, jobs, and conditions, and passengers in Scotland and Wales have been warned to expect significant disruption.
The RMT union has declared that on January 3, 4, 6, and 7, employees at Network Rail will go on strike.
Transport for Wales and ScotRail, who are not parties to the dispute, have both issued warnings that the walkouts in England will have a negative impact on their services.
According to ScotRail, this is due to the fact that many of the Network Rail employees protesting in safety-sensitive positions.
David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “It’s really disappointing to see more widespread disruption across the whole Great Britain rail network as a result of the dispute between Network Rail and the RMT at a time when we need to be encouraging more people back to the railway.
“For ScotRail, it’s going to mean that we won’t be able to operate the vast majority of our services between 3 and 7 January, which we know will be really frustrating for our customers.”
Meanwhile, Transport for Wales told the BBC that as Network Rail owns and operates the track, stations, and signaling in Britain, the strikes mean only a limited number of trains can run.
It said, “The industrial action resulting from the dispute between the unions and Network Rail means we’ll be unable to operate rail services on Network Rail infrastructure.”