Pre-Christmas strikes hit Eurostar

Eurostar promises enough capacity for travellers

Cross-channel rail firm Eurostar has cancelled 12 trains on Friday amid two separate strikes over pay.

On Thursday three services were cut because of a strike by train drivers of French National Railways (SNCF) at Lille.

Friday cancellations

05.15 London-Paris

05.50 London-Brussels

08.01 Brussels-London

08.23 London-Paris

10.19 Paris-London

11.01 Brussels-London

12.19 Paris-London

16.27 London-Brussels

17.01 Brussels-London

17.23 London-Brussels

17.43 Paris-London

19.19 Paris-London

Their industrial action is set to continue until Sunday.

On Friday they are being joined by some train managers in London, who are staging a 24-hour strike.

Eurostar management said there was nothing to talk about with the London unions, and held out no prospect of averting their industrial action.

The company says passengers will be able to travel on the other 43 services still running on Friday.

Mind the gap

The London-based Eurostar train managers want higher pay to bring them in line with drivers.

They have rejected a 3% pay offer made in October.

Drivers can earn £40,000 a year, while train managers get between £23,000 and £24,000, according to the union which represents both groups.

"When Eurostar was established the differential between train managers and train drivers was £5,000 to £6,000 a year. Now the gap has widened to about £17,000," said Andrew Murray, a spokesman for the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef).

Eurostar says it agreed to a higher award for drivers because of recruitment problems.

"It's all to do with the market...we had a recruitment and retention problem with drivers," said Mr Harrsion.

Train managers are only allowed to drive within the Channel Tunnel, which has different regulations from other sections of Eurostar's routes.