Christmas train and plane strike chaos — Who's striking when?

14 December 2017 at 3:00 pm

Christmas train and plane strike chaos are set to hit UK passengers.

Railways including Virgin Trains, South Western Railway and Greater Anglia all have strikes planned over the Christmas period.

Ryanair, the discount airline, is also facing strikes from pilots with a fresh round of cancellations in line.

Which trains are striking and when?

1. South Western Railway Train Strike

Sunday December 31 (New Year's Eve)

The RMT union is calling the strike action because of an ongoing argument over the role of train guards.

Paul Maynard, Rail Minister, complained,

"The RMT now wants to play Scrooge by causing strife and misery to rail passengers over the Christmas period."

Earlier in the week, South Western Railway was found to have mis-sold thousands of train tickets despite the journeys already being cancelled.

Train union RMT has been called "Scrooge" for planning strikes at Christmas (Image: Getty)

2. Greater Anglia Train Strike

Wednesday 27th December

3. Southern, Merseyrail, Arriva Rail North Train Strikes

Friday 22nd December

Richard Branson's Virgin Trains are set to have six days of strikes on the West Coast (Image: Getty)

4. Virgin Train Strikes

Strike action on Virgin Trains will hit the West Coast route on Friday 15th December and over the Christmas period, National Rail has confirmed.

Strike action is planned on the following dates:

Friday 15 December
Friday 22 December
Friday 5 January
Monday 8 January
Friday 26 January
Monday 29 January

Will any Virgin Trains run?

Virgin Trains has issued a press release in which it says the majority of its west coast services will run.

Virgin Train services on the east coast are not affected.

North Wales and Chester will be particularly hit. This comes after the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) turned down a 3.8% pay rise saying it was not enough.

How do I get a refund or compensation if my train has been cancelled?

Learn how to get compensation if your train ticket is cancelled

Ryanair flights will be grounded in Ireland on 20th December (Image: Getty)

Ryanair Christmas Flight Strike

Ryanair is also facing strike action in Ireland, Italy and Germany.

After more than 18,000 flights were cancelled affecting over 700,000 passengers, this is the latest in a long string of difficulties for CEO Michael O'Leary.

79 pilots in Dublin, Ireland will strike on 20 December
Pilots based in Germany, Italy and Portugal are also threatening strike action - but Ryanair has said it would "not deal with or recognise" them.

However the travel misery does not end there. If you're driving home for Christmas you may suffer four hours of delays.

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