BRITAIN’S biggest post-privatisation rail dispute went national yesterday with a strike hitting three rail networks on the same day.

Workers on Merseyrail and Northern voted to strike over driver-only operation and fears for the future of train guards.

The same issue has led to numerous strikes on the beleaguered Southern network.

On Northern, which is owned by German state subsidiary Arriva, 83.6 per cent of rail union RMT’s members voted to strike.

Similarly on Merseyrail, 81.8 per cent of members backed walk-outs. Over 90 per cent voted in favour of action short of strike. Guards and some drivers on both networks will now down keys on Monday March 13.

Southern conductors will also strike on March 13, with the union saying its offer of further talks had been “snubbed.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said both companies had failed to give assurances about the continued role of guards.

He said the union would “fight to retain the safety critical role of the guard and to keep a guard on the train.”

RMT argues that the plans to remove guards would endanger passenger safety and severely impede the travel of many disabled passengers who require the help of guards to board trains.

A Merseyrail spokesman said: “Industrial action relates to the new fleet of trains, coming into service during 2020, which will no longer require the role of guards due to the way the trains will be operated. However, around 60 onboard customer service positions will be created.”

The RMT also accused Arriva boss Chris Burchell of launching a “thinly veiled threat” in a speech coinciding with the ballot results. Mr Burchell, who chairs the Rail Delivery Group — the body representing private rail operators — called for the ongoing disputes over the expansion of driver-only trains to be resolved “as quickly as possible.”

But he said there should be “no attachment to old ways of working” on the railways.

But Mr Cash warned: “When Britain’s private rail companies talk about modernisation we know that what they really mean is hacking back on jobs and passenger safety in the drive for fatter profits.”

“Local politicians need to be aware that the threat to guards is wholly politically and profitmotivated and they need to stand alongside RMT in the fight to save these safety-critical staff from being bulldozed into the ground.”