Overview
- RMT members are voting on an improved 7.25% pay offer and the ballot closes at midday on Friday, July 17, with a yes vote set to trigger three days of strike action from July 18 to July 20.
- Merseyrail says its contingency plan, if strikes proceed, would suspend most services on Saturday and Sunday and run a 15-minute Southport line shuttle between 09:00 and 21:00 with a break in the middle of the day, and a limited wider service on Monday from about 10:00 to 19:00.
- Passengers have already faced disruption while The Open is under way, including a train fault between Freshfield and Ainsdale, signalling and track circuit problems at Hooton, cancelled services, and severe overcrowding on event trains.
- The 7.25% offer is backdated to January 2026 and was tabled after an earlier 4% proposal was rejected, with Merseyrail urging members to accept the deal to avoid weekend disruption.
- Network Rail and Merseyrail share operational responsibility and say engineers are working day and night to fix hot‑weather and signalling faults, but local limits such as short platforms at Cressington and the tournament’s large visitor numbers increase the risk of sustained travel problems and economic knock‑on effects for the city region.