Thousands of passengers stranded by train strike

LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) Thousands of train passengers in central England were left stranded today after a strike by conductors brought services to a standstill.

The RMT union said 550 senior conductors from Central Trains were striking in a dispute over pay and working arrangements after talks earlier in the week broke down.

As a consequence the company, which runs trains from cities such as Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, Norwich and Nottingham, was not putting on any services.

''Our talks team offered to suspend the three days of strike action if the company would commit itself to hammering out a peace plan on the issues we are in dispute over, but Central Trains have chosen instead to close the railway on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve,'' said RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

Central Trains blamed the union's local negotiators for the breakdown in the talks.

''It seems that local negotiators are much more interested in causing disruption to our passengers, than reaching a deal with us which could enable train services to run,'' said Steve Banaghan, Managing Director for Central Trains.

He said they hoped some services would run on December 31 when the next strike was planned.

REUTERS DKA PM1625