FIRST Great Western is hoping to run a skeleton timetable through next week's rail strike.

The Rail Maritime and Transport union has announced that Network Rail's maintenance and signalling workers will walk out at 6.30pm on Tuesday for 24 hours.

The RMT has accused Network Rail of refusing to negotiate after the company said it was closing its existing pension scheme to new entrants.

But the decision to order staff to down tools has angered First Great Western, which runs services through Swindon to and from London Paddington and South Wales.

FGW's communications manager Tim Bowcock said: "First Great Western is disappointed by the RMT union's decision to take industrial action against Network Rail next week."

Mr Bowcock said that FGW is working on drawing up a skeleton timetable for the strike, but has not yet finalised the details.

It is expected that services will return to normal on Thursday, July 1.

The move to strike has also disappointed the western region of the Rail Passengers' Committee. A spokesman said: "This is bad news for passengers, who are clearly going to be seriously inconvenienced by the strike.

"We call for both sides to get together and resolve the issues.

"It's not for us to question industrial relations, but we would point out that it will be a big problem for passengers and we would like to see this resolved, preferably before it comes to a major loss of services.

"We appreciate that rail companies usually have some contingency plans in place but they are nothing compared to what passengers are used to."

London Underground staff will walk out on the same day against Metronet, the biggest private sector group that maintains the tube, over a 3.25 per cent pay increase that the RMT says is too small.

For skeleton timetable information contact individual stations or visit the website www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk

Tom Morton