RMT members at East Midlands Railway will strike on four more dates in the dispute over the Class 810 fleet

Members of the RMT at East Midlands Railway will strike on four further dates, the union has announced, extending a dispute over the operator's new Class 810 Aurora fleet into September.

The walkouts will take place on Sunday 30 and Monday 31 August, and on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 September. The first falls across the August bank holiday weekend, one of the busiest leisure travel periods of the year.

Eddie Dempsey, the RMT's general secretary, said the union was seeing trains stranded on the track and that staff were losing confidence in safety levels. The union has raised faulty toilets, broken air conditioning, and communication and door issues on the fleet, which entered service in April.

At a glance

• Strikes will take place on 30 and 31 August and 16 and 17 September.
• The dispute concerns the introduction of East Midlands Railway's Class 810 Aurora fleet.
• RMT has cited faulty toilets, broken air conditioning, and communication and door issues.
• The Class 810s entered passenger service in April 2026.
• Intercity and Connect services will be reduced on strike days, while Regional services are not affected.
• EMR says it has held six meetings with the union and is working with Hitachi Rail on the fleet problems.

What the dispute is about

This is not a pay dispute, which makes it unusual among recent rail disputes and harder to settle with a number. The RMT's case rests on the reliability of a new fleet and on what happens to staff when that fleet fails in service.

The specific faults the union lists, toilets, air conditioning, door and communication systems, sound like comfort issues until they are placed in an operational context. Door and communication systems are safety-critical, and a train stranded between stations turns a maintenance problem into a crowd-management problem for the crew on board.

The Class 810 introduction

The Aurora fleet entered passenger service in April after a lengthy delay, and was intended to replace ageing stock on the Midland Main Line with bi-mode units able to run under the wires where electrification exists and on diesel where it does not.

New fleets almost always arrive with a snagging period, and operators plan for it. What escalates a snagging period into an industrial dispute is the question of who absorbs the consequences while the faults are fixed, and how much say front-line staff have in whether a unit goes into service at all.

Where the operator stands

East Midlands Railway says it has met the union six times and is working with Hitachi Rail, which built the fleet, to resolve the problems. Philippa Cresswell, the operator's customer experience director, said the company understood how important it was for customers to have certainty about their travel plans, and recognised the uncertainty and disruption the strike action would cause, particularly over the August bank holiday.

The operator's difficulty is that the fix is not entirely in its hands. Modifying a new fleet is a manufacturer's task on a manufacturer's timetable, which leaves EMR negotiating over a resolution it cannot unilaterally deliver.

What passengers should expect

Intercity and Connect services will run a reduced timetable on strike days, with detailed plans to be published closer to the dates. Regional services are not affected by this round of action.

The pattern of earlier rounds in this dispute is instructive. Strike days earlier in August confined services to a narrow window with a much reduced frequency between Corby and London St Pancras, and no rail replacement buses were provided. Anyone travelling over the bank holiday weekend should check before setting out rather than assume a normal service with gaps in it.

What happens next

Two working weeks separate the August walkouts from the September pair, which leaves room for talks. The union has also been running action short of strike alongside the walkouts, so disruption is not confined to the named dates.

A settlement is likely to depend on visible progress from Hitachi Rail on the fleet faults rather than on anything either side can concede across a table. Until the trains stop failing, the safety argument the union is making does not go away.