Virgin Trains strikes: Walkouts before Christmas and during January have been cancelled, announces train company

Separate stoppages by other rail operators over Christmas and New Year set to go ahead

Strike out: the second planned stoppage by Virgin Trains staff has been called off (Simon Calder)

On the eve of the busiest travel day of the winter, a planned strike on Virgin Trains has been called off.

The RMT and TSSA unions have agreed to call off the industrial action planned for Friday by on-board and station staff in a dispute over parity with train drivers.

Virgin Trains had published an emergency timetable. A one-day strike on 15 December caused significant disruption, cutting about one-third of services.

The firm hopes to run a full schedule on Friday, but recommends passengers still check their journey is running, because the rosters put in place for Friday must be completely re-drawn. A revised timetable will not be live on Virgin Trains website until the early hours of the morning.

Virgin Trains’ managing director, Phil Whittingham, said: “We’ll do everything we can to run a full service on Friday 22 December, but because the strike has been called off at the last-minute there may be some cancellations.

Future strikes on 5, 8, 26, 29 January 2018 have also been called off.

The dispute was about what the RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, called “justice and equality and against the divide and rule approach of Virgin”.

A strike by staff on CrossCountry Trains planned for 23 December and Christmas Eve is set to continue, in a row about rostering.

Strikes over driver-only operation are planned for the last week of the year on Greater Anglia and South Western Railway, and on a wide range of operators early in January.