COMMUTERS are facing a day of travel chaos after rail staff voted to go on strike.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union from Arriva Rail North — which runs Northern Rail services — will strike on Monday, March 13, after voting for action amid a row over the future of guards on trains, alongside Southern Rail and Merseyrail staff.

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said that Northern bosses had failed to guarantee that guards would be kept on trains as modernisation work goes ahead.

Northern operates more than 2,500 daily trains across the north of England serving a population of nearly 15 million people.

Mr Cash said: "The union's position on Driver Only Operation (DOO) is perfectly clear. We will not agree to any introduction of DOO and will fight to retain the safety-critical role of the guard and to keep a guard on the train."

He added: "The abject failure by Southern Rail to meet with us, to clarify their exact position on the second safety-critical member of staff and to take the safety issues seriously has left us with no option but to confirm further action.

"These disputes could have been settled if Southern/GTR had sat down and listened to our case and given the guarantee of a second-safety critical member of staff on their trains."

Northern Rail bosses say that plans will be in place to keep services moving, should the strike go ahead.

A spokesman for Northern said: "As our modernisation proposals are still in the early stages, it is a shame that RMT has announced strike action for Monday March 13.

"Our aim is to reach a constructive resolution and we urge RMT to continue the talks we have already started.

"We want to protect jobs and pay, and during our recent discussions we offered to consult fully with our people, customers and key stakeholders.

"If strike action goes ahead, our customers can be reassured that we have plans in place to keep them moving. During any strike action, we plan to run a revised service and will shortly release further information."

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said: "Rail companies want to harness technology and smarter ways of working to give passengers a better, more modern service and these coordinated strikes will cause nothing but needless disruption.

"On the Southern network, hundreds of thousands of our customers have already suffered months of walkouts.

"The strikes are not about safety, jobs or pay but about changes to provide a better service for customers.

"Trains where drivers close the doors have run safely across Britain for more than 30 years and independent experts say they are safe."

Jeff Davies, chairman of Bolton Rail Users Group, said: "This is sad an unfortunate news. I hope that, in the interests of the staff, companies, and public, that the parties will come to an amicable agreement."