Rail users in Shrewsbury support RMT strikes despite disruption
There was strong support in Shrewsbury for striking railway workers even after rail unions this week announced a series of 48-hour strikes up to Christmas and into the new year.
A minority of travellers were angry about the RMT union's decision to ramp up their industrial action as they attempt to gain concessions on pay and terms and conditions.
Mandy Carnahan, 50, a nurse from Ruyton-XI-Towns, said even though the strikes would "mess up" a planned work trip to Cardiff, she could understand why the workers were going to be downing tools again.
"I am not against people striking for pay and terms," she said. "It is up to the Government to step in and settle it."
Fellow Royal Shrewsbury Hospital nurse Jo Stickley, 54, from Shrewsbury, recently had a journey back from London Euston cancelled meaning a very long diversion.
She believes that "the Government needs to invest in a good public transport system". She added: "The railways should be re-nationalised. It should be run as a not-for-profit to serve everybody."
Regular rail traveller Helen Donoghue, 65, from Wellington, said: "It is a very complicated issue. Some claims like having guards on trains are valid, but it is no point having them on a train if they just sit in their carriage.
"The management of the railways is terrible, I use trains a lot."
Mrs Susan Jeffreys, 64, of Wellington, was the only train customer the Shropshire Star met who was livid about the escalation in industrial action. She is a regular on the line into Telford, and to Shrewsbury where she attends the hospital.
"I can't travel in any other ways," she said. "It is getting beyond a joke, it is costing me £10 by taxi which is much more than my train travel and I can't keep paying that.
"They need to sort it out as soon as possible. Both the management and the unions need to sort it out."
John Grenville, 67, from Sundorne, Shrewsbury, says it will have a big impact on him as a taxi driver on the rank outside Shrewsbury railway station. He's been in the trade for 30 years.
"It's all about timing, with Christmas coming. It is going to be detrimental to my business and will be like Covid when it all stopped.
"They should resolve it by paying them and that means compromising."
