OREANDA-NEWS. A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We have asked the TSSA to withdraw notice of their industrial action as we believe there are numerous defects in their ballot information.

“Network Rail has a responsibility to passengers, freight users and to the country as a whole to do everything we can to avert a strike.

“Talks with the unions continue and we hope to reach a settlement, but we must explore all avenues at our disposal and that includes legal ones.”

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain’s railway – the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts, and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.6bn journeys by rail every year - double the number of 1996 - and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We’re investing ?38bn in the railway by 2019 to deliver more frequent, more reliable, safer services and brighter and better stations.