Strike to impact Virgin Trains East Coast service through Peterborough and Grantham

The announcement comes after talks aimed at resolving a series of long-running issues at the heart of the dispute failed.

As a result, staff have been instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between the hours of 0001 and 2359 hours on Monday October 3.

The strike will impact services from London King’s Cross to Peterborough and Grantham as well as further north.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT will not sit back while nearly 200 members’ jobs are under threat and while conditions and safety are put at risk by a franchise which is clearly in financial trouble. We will also not tolerate the cavalier attitude to safety that is now on show as the company mobilises its scab army of managers.

“The union suspended an earlier programme of action when it looked like serious progress was being made in talks but that process has now failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion and we are back into industrial action as a result. We have been shocked at the way the company have led us up the garden path when we entered talks in good faith. Or representative are rightly angry at this cavalier approach.

“The company have chosen to treat the negotiations as a game up to now, merely going through the motions and playing for time. To behave like that is to treat the union and its members with pure contempt.

“Our members will not pay the price for a crisis cooked up in the Virgin/Stagecoach boardroom. The action is back on and the union remains available for serious talks .”