Passengers urged not to travel ahead of rail strikes – impacting Chesterfield, Dronfield, Matlock, Belper, Long Eaton and Derby

East Midlands Railway services will be impacted by industrial action until Sunday, January 8, due to extensive strike action by the RMT, UNITE, TSSA and ASLEF trade unions.

East Midlands Railways have urged passengers to travel only if absolutely necessary and expect severe disruptions as services will be significantly reduced on strike days.

On strike days, EMR services will run between the hours of 7.30 am and 6.30pm only. Services will start later and finish earlier than usual with the last departures starting between 3pm and 4.30pm. East Midland Railways have urged those who decide to travel to check the time of the first and last return train ahead.

Passengers have also been urged to only travel if absolutely necessary today, on Wednesday December 28 as services are extremely busy and there is an increased risk of short term cancellations in East Midlands, including Derbyshire.

Those travelling between Thursday, December 29 and Saturday December 31 and on Monday, January 2 are asked to make sure their services are running as EMR is expecting short term cancellations and route alternations.

On Thursday, January 5, EMR will not operate any services due to strike action from ASLEF.

Passengers travelling on January 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 are urged to travel only if absolutely necessary as services will be disrupted due to strike action. On those days one train per hour will run between:

Nottingham and London St Pancras Nottingham and Matlock Sheffield and Nottingham Nottingham and Mansfield Woodhouse

Additionally one train per hour will run between Leicester and Nottingham on January 3,4,6 and 7. All other lines of route will be closed and no Rail Replacement Bus services will be provided.

Trains will run according to the usual timetable on Sunday, January 8, but all services will be starting up after 07 am due to the delay after the strike action.

As strike action will affect other routes across the country, EMR has advised passengers to check full journey before travelling during all the strike days.

Full EMR timetables and information on disruptions can be found here.