RAIL bosses have confirmed that Furness and West Cumbria will receive NO rail service during strike days next week.

And knock-on effects from these days will cause delays cancellations of services on non-strike days, leading railway operator Northern to advise customers not to travel all week.

Rail workers have voted to strike on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, bringing the nations railways to a halt.

Robert Parker, committee member for the Furness Line Action Group (FLAG), said: "There is still time but I don't think it will be resolved by Tuesday.

"I think that the strikes are unnecessary in some respects and the RMT have jumped the gun a bit.

"But why hasn't the Government stepped in? Our transport minister Grant Shapps stood up and said it was the operators' job to sort this out. Yet the Government run three of the line operators and those are striking too."

The Government has stepped in over the past decade to take over the running of Northern, LNER and Southwestern services after mismanagement by the original operators on those lines.

"I think there is an overall unwillingness to come to the table from all parties and it will leave people stranded," said Mr Parker.

Northern has cancelled almost all services that it operates, with just a few around Manchester and West Yorkshire being saved.

The lines linking London with Glasgow and Edinburgh will also continue meaning a threadbare service serving stations such as Oxenholme and Penrith will be maintained.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer at Northern, said: “We’ve done everything we can to offer people across the North of England a skeleton service – but our advice remains not to travel.

“The timetable we have put in place has been agreed with Network Rail, who have had to consider the requirements of other train operators and freight services on the network.”