A TRAIN strike planned for this weekend has been suspended after the rail company began talks with union officials.

The strike action was planned for a full day on Saturday, July 21, but has been cancelled as the two parties reopen discussion on the role of conductors on trains.

The Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) has been in a two-year dispute with Northern (also called Arriva Rail North) over Driver-Only Operated (DOO) trains.

This would see some services controlled by just one person, which the union says would create serious safety concerns for passengers.

Now RMT members have agreed to suspend the strike pending talks this week about retaining a second member of staff on board trains.

The union's general secretary, Mick Cash said: “RMT’s negotiating team has been in talks with Arriva Rail North (ARN) over the past week in an attempt to seek a resolution to the long-running dispute.

“Reports from RMT representatives and correspondence from the company have set out a process for reconvening talks around proposals to set up a joint working party to consider a 'range of options on the deployment of on-board staff, including a specific option of retaining a second safety critical person on board all ARN trains'.

“RMT’s National Executive Committee (NEC) has noted this situation and has stated that these talks must commence this week. Also, the union’s NEC has instructed our team to negotiate around the guarantee of a second person on every train and their safety critical responsibilities in the first instance.

“Weekly updates will be given to the RMT NEC on how these talks are progressing. As a result of this situation, the NEC has suspended the industrial action which was scheduled to take place on Saturday 21st July 2018 and our members are instructed to work as normal on that date.”

In response to the announcement, Richard Allan, deputy managing director for Northern, said: "We are pleased that RMT has agreed to hold talks in a bid to resolve their ongoing dispute and has called off its strike action that was planned for Saturday 21 July, which means that customers can plan their journeys based on a regular Saturday timetable.

"Northern is modernising local rail for customers, with £500m of new trains under construction, better stations and more services by 2020.

"We want to work with RMT to design and shape the future on-board role for colleagues to help deliver better customer service."