DESPITE the perception of good news with news yesterday that the RMT union has reached an agreement with rail companies and has cancelled its programme of strike action, local train users will still be affected next week with no services at all for the lines run by c2c through Basildon and other local stations.

Members of the RMT union agreed to an offer from 14 train companies, which included a backdated pay rise of five per cent for 2022-23 as well as job security guarantees.

It means that RMT members will no longer be involved in industrial action until at least the spring of next year.

However, train drivers represented by the union Aslef will still strike – and that impacts on local services.

Aslef members are to take part in a "rolling programme" of walkouts between 2 and 8 December, with different train companies affected on each day.

Drivers will also refuse to work any overtime from 1 to 9 December, which will also cause disruption to timetables.

C2c has announced there will be a reduced service today (Friday, December 1) with fewer trains. Tomorrow will also see a severely reduced service and as well as the reduction of service through industrial action, services will also be disrupted by engineering work on Sunday.

Monday will see a reduced peak time service and just two trains per hour at off peak times and on Tuesday (5 December) there will be a complete shutdown of the service.

There will be further reduced services on days through to Saturday, 9 December.