TRAIN conductors are striking again, despite being offered better pay terms for the first time in the six-month-long dispute.

Rail commuters' journeys on Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) will again hit the buffers on June 1 and June 7, when the TransPennine Express through East Lancashire will be cancelled.

Travellers wanting to take the line from Preston to Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley will have to find alternative transport.

ATN offered the 672 conductors a four per cent rise, an offer which the RMT Union described as 'a complete insult.'

The previous package of three percent had been offered before every previous strike action, with ATN management then stating they would not budge.

The conductors still feel unhappy with this new offer as drivers were awarded an 18 percent rise on April 1, which took their salary from £23,000 to £28,000.

ATN management said that was to appease their drivers' dissatisfaction that other train companies paid more.

Ray Price, managing director of ATN, said he was "surprised and frustrated" at the rejection.

"The strike action is having an intolerable effect on our customers," he said, "and we share with them and many others across the North of England, a frustration that these disputes are continuing in the pursuit of the union's unrealistic pay demands, particularly as offers around this level have been accepted by the RMT at other train operating companies.

"We have made a genuine and fair offer in a bid to resolve the current disputes."

But Bob Crow, the RMT's general secretary, said: "It's a complete insult to our members. It comes from a company that recently announced profits of £11.5m and a shareholders dividend of five percent, not to mention a pay package for its chief executive worth more than £540,000."

The June industrial action will be the eleventh and twelfth strikes by the conductors this year.