RAIL commuters face misery over Christmas following the announcement of strikes throughout December.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has announced it will be taking industrial action against Northern Rail on seven Saturdays over the next eight weeks.

It means passengers travelling in and out of East Lancashire will face more disruption on weekends in the lead up to the Christmas holidays.

The strike dates include November 17, November 24, December 1, December 8, December 15, December 22 and December 29.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT continues to make every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but the company are not interested and would prefer to continue to bury their heads in the sand regardless of the impact on the travelling public.

“German-owned Northern Rail want to run nearly half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access ‎to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately."