BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
News image
Last Updated: Saturday, 12 January 2008, 11:32 GMT
Hopes up to avert railway strike
A First Great Western train
The strike was planned to start on 20 January
Hopes of averting a 48-hour strike by hundreds of rail guards at First Great Western (FGW) have been raised after talks between the company and a union.

Guards at the rail operator, which runs services from Paddington to the West and south-west of England and Wales, had planned to strike from 20 January.

But the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) said talks had been positive and progress made.

Its executive will meet later to decide whether the strike should go ahead.

It had previously said relations had broken down over issues such as managers driving and guarding trains.

FGW runs services from London's Paddington Station to the West Country, south-west of England and Wales.

The company admitted it did use managers to crew trains on a Sunday as a "last resort" as FGW was a commercial operation working seven days a week, but that it would never compromise safety.

SEE ALSO
Strike ballot at train operator
27 Dec 07 |  England
Rail timetable protest threatened
13 Dec 07 |  Wiltshire
Cows on the line halt commuters
03 Oct 07 |  Beds/Bucks/Herts

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific