Rail union suspends strike at main terminals

A planned strike by staff at some of Britain's busiest railway stations was suspended on Wednesday to allow more talks to try to resolve the dispute, the RMT union said.

About 230 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union were due to walk out from noon on Thursday at 19 mainline stations in a dispute over compulsory redundancies.

The 24-hour strike would have affected main stations including Euston and King's Cross in London, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street and Glasgow Central.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said delegates at the union's annual general meeting in Nottingham had voted to suspend the action.

The union had balloted members after Network Rail refused to guarantee there would be no compulsory redundancies in a reorganisation of station management.

Network Rail said it does not expect to make large numbers of compulsory job-cuts, but said it could not rule them out.

The rail infrastructure operator said it had been prepared for the planned strike and passengers would have been unaffected.