Commuters in South Devon escaped the misery elsewhere in the country caused by strike action from five rail firms today, January 8.

Rail, Maritime and Transport union members at South Western Railway, Northern, Merseyrail, and Greater Anglia took direct action on Monday and plan further action on Wednesday and Friday.

There was a reduced service from Exeter to Waterloo, run by South Western Railway. A spokesman for Great Western Railway said there’d been no knock-on effect to its own services in South Devon, including its commuter routes to London.

The 24-hour walkouts have been called over separate disputes, all concerning rail safety, the RMT said.

It said the disputes were over issues including the role of train guards and the extension of driver-only services.

A spokesman for South Western Railway said they were running around 70 per cent of their normal weekday timetable, including the Exeter to Waterloo service. Of 1,687 trains scheduled for Monday, 1,212 were still planning to run.

Andy Mellors, Managing Director for South Western Railway, said: ‘We are sorry that our passengers will once again suffer due to this unnecessary strike action called by the RMT executive.

‘We have repeatedly guaranteed that no one will lose their job and that we will roster a second person on board every train, however what we have been trying to talk to the RMT about is what happens if a guard is unavailable at short notice, perhaps due to illness or disruption; and how we might keep passengers moving rather than leave them stranded.

‘We are determined to provide the best possible service to our customers during the strikes and will run more than 70 per cent of our normal weekday service. We will operate more and longer trains than on the previous weekday strikes called by the RMT. However, we are advising passengers to check their journey before they travel as they will find trains busier than normal and that, in some places, replacement bus services will run instead of trains.’

Details of services affected on South Western Railway can be seen at www.southwesternrailway.com/plan-my-journey/rmt-strike