Nobody wants to see Scotland’s train network brought to a standstill – not least the passengers who rely on this essential service.
Students on the way to graduations, patients attending local hospital appointments, commuters on their way to the office – all will suffer with no trains.
While the industrial action is officially limited to today, Thursday and Saturday it is likely the ripple effects will mean disruption all week.
Hundreds of passengers in Tayside and Fife face travel chaos as the dispute over pay, job and conditions brings the vast majority of the network to a standstill.
A skeleton service will limp on in parts of the country but none of these trains will serve Perth, Dundee or stations in Fife or Angus.
RMT members at Network Rail include guards, catering staff, signallers and track maintenance workers.
They put the blame on a cost- of-living crisis coming on top of decades of cuts, with promises of more to come.
‘Crazy’ strike
Meanwhile, Network Rail bosses and the UK Government attack the “crazy” strike for the effect it will have on a range of communities.
Scottish Government minister Jenny Gilruth recently took heavy flak for her handling of a separate disagreement with ScotRail train drivers.
The limited timetable introduced as part of that dispute brought frustration in spades, but what would passengers in Scotland give for the same kind of service this week when stations will stand empty and trains motionless?
The ScotRail dispute appears to have reached a positive outcome, while travel across the UK this week seems anything but.
The onus remains on the UK Government to encourage a solution to these rail strikes before what is already a bad situation spirals into something worse.
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