The dispute between Greater Anglia and trade unions continues following the announcement of fresh industrial action yesterday.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at Greater Anglia, which runs the Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street line, are already set to strike on October 3 and 5 but will now ban overtime and rest day working from October 10 to November 6.

The union said the extra industrial action was a result of the “continuing refusal” of Greater Anglia to reach a negotiated settlement. The union is concerned about the future of train guards as Greater Anglia proposes to move to driver-only trains.

It has argued that the move would be unsafe, but Derek Monnery, the chairman of the Essex Rail Users Federation, disagreed.

He said: “There is no reason why the driver shouldn’t operate the doors.

“I just feel this is a spurious strike and it’s only for the benefit of the trade unions. It’s just the trade union flexing their muscles.

“It is becoming a real battle to get into London.”

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It is the wholesale failure of Greater Anglia to address our members’ concerns over safety that has left us with no option but to escalate our programme of industrial action.

Greater Anglia is in the process of training back office staff to perform the role of conductors during the action.

Service delivery director Richard Dean said: “We are open for talks with the RMT in the hope that we can avert the strike.

“However, we know our customers don’t want to see their services cancelled, so we have spent several months training back office staff so that they can fill in for conductors.

“The majority of our services are not affected by the proposed strike anyway, but we are now prepared for the 40 per cent of services that have conductors.”

“Our back office staff have gone through a rigorous training process, and have to pass competence, medical and safety tests before they can stand in for conductors.”

Greater Anglia is planning a full service throughout the period of the overtime ban announced by the RMT.