Rail union leader wants special summit to halt industry 'chaos'

Call comes as strikes hamper services on weekend of Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool

Rail, Maritime and Transport union members on the picket line outside Euston station in London on Saturday. PA

The leader of the UK's largest rail workers' union has called for a special summit to stop the chaos in the sector, amid continuing strike action.

Mick Lynch, secretary general of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, has written to Transport Secretary Mark Harper to call for a meeting between unions, employers and government, to resolve the “toxic” dispute.

RMT members walked off the job on Saturday, the day of the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, while the network was brought to a halt by a strike by the train drivers' union Aslef on Friday.

Mr Harper said that the industrial action was “cynically” targeting the Eurovision event, a charge the RMT denied.

'Worse disruption for months to come'

In his letter to the Transport Secretary, Mr Lynch, said that it was clear to his members and “the wider public that private train operation is failing”.

“However, the actions of your government, up to this moment, have compounded this failure tenfold, creating chaos on our railways, not least in the management of the rail dispute which threatens to do lasting damage to the rail industry,” he wrote.

“While we have reached agreements for rail workers with the Scottish and Welsh governments your government's management of the dispute is set to plunge our railways into even more and worse disruption for months to come.

“Instead of facilitating a resolution, your government has repeatedly torpedoed negotiations. Instead of bringing management and unions together, you are driving a deeper wedge between them.”

Aslef is also planning strike action on May 31 and June 3, which is the day of football's FA Cup final between Manchester City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium in London.