THURROCK rail passengers are about to be affected by industrial action that will disrupt services on several days and bring a complete shutdown on the c2c routes through the borough on Friday, 1 September.

Following the recent ballot for strike action on passenger services in England and on London Underground by the train drivers' union, The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), there will be no c2c services on the first day of September.

This ballot saw c2c members balloted for the first time since the nationwide rail industry dispute began last year. Both strike and action short of strike were voted in favour of, with Friday 1 September called as a full strike day and action short of strike called for Saturday 2 September.

Separately, as previously announced, The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport worker's (RMT) has strikes planned for Saturday, 26 August and Saturday, 2 September.

"Due to the addition of ASLEF's action short of strike activity to RMT's strike day on Saturday 2 September, c2c's train service will be reduced by around a third of a usual Saturday timetabled service. This equates to:

• 2 trains per hour Fenchurch Street - Shoeburyness via Laindon calling at all stations
• 2 trains per hour Fenchurch Street - Shoeburyness via Ockendon calling at all stations
• 1 train per hour Fenchurch Street - Grays via Rainham calling at all stations

"Trains will run as eight carriage services to help move customers across the network, except for a small number of early morning and late-night services which will run as four carriages.

"We are advising customers, as services will be busier, to please allow extra time for journeys as they may need to wait for a later service."

Rob Mullen, Managing Director at c2c, said: "It is really disappointing that we haven't yet been able to reach an agreement with our Trade Unions.

"The impact of this ongoing action is significant for our customers and colleagues, and this will be felt further with our ASLEF colleagues now part of this dispute.

"We are sorry that we cannot run a service on 1 September and encourage our customers to plan ahead and allow extra time for their journeys on 2 September due to the reduced number of trains running."