East Midlands Railway faces four weeks of strikes – impacting passengers from Chesterfield, Matlock, Alfreton, Belper and Derby

East Midlands Railway's (EMR) services will be hit by four weeks of industrial action by the RMT, UNITE the Union and TSSA Unions – starting today and running until January 7 2023.

Throughout this period, EMR services will change – often from day to day – as each union’s action will affect the operator in different ways.

However, there will be no EMR services on December 24, and services throughout the strike period are expected to be extremely busy. Services will not operate on Christmas Day and Boxing Day as normal.

During some strike days, all trains will terminate by 6.30pm, with the last departures starting between 3.00pm and 4.30pm.

Strike action will also affect other routes across the country with very limited services running on the rail network for the same period.

Customers are advised to travel only if absolutely necessary, and those travelling should ensure they check the time of their last return train.

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Will Rogers, managing director at East Midlands Railway, said: "Due to industrial action our services will be significantly impacted in the next four weeks.

“Regrettably, we won't be able to run any services on Christmas Eve, and throughout the strike period, different parts of our network will be significantly affected – while services that are operating will likely be extremely busy.

“It is a complicated picture due to the way each union affects us and therefore we are strongly urging customers to visit our website before planning a journey to understand what services are running.

“Customers should only travel if its absolutely necessary and they should leave extra time for disruption and short notice changes.”

Customers can find out what services are running by visiting EMR's website here. Detailed journey planners will be updated as soon as possible.