The Rail, Maritime and Transport union strike officially begins today (Monday 20 June) and will continue throughout the week.
Commuter chaos ensued thismorning in Leeds and will continue throughout the day as a whopping 80% of all trains running across Great Britain are cancelled.
Today marks the biggest walk-out of rail staff in more than 30 years with further walk-outs due to take place on Thursday and Saturday. The union have confirmed that an estimated 50,000 employees will be walking out over the course of the week, making it the biggest train strike since 1989.
The strikes are an attempt to reform the rail industry and Network Rail alongside 13 other train networks will be taking part.
Strike days are scheduled today, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June. A very limited service will be seen from all networks on these days with most trains only running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
Network Rail has urged passengers to check their travel route ahead of time with train operators and only travel if absolutely necessary on strike days. The disruption will heavily impact Leeds and Yorkshire, here is a list of all the services effected.
Northern Rail
Northern Rail have stated they will have "extremely limited availability" of train staff and that the majority of services will not be running. They urge passengers not to travel at all between Tuesday 21 June and Sunday 26 June.
The seven services running on the days of the strike are as follows:
Transpennine will also experience serious disruption and will be closing a number of stations during the strike period.
There will be roughly one train per hour between Manchester and York, and every two to four hours on other routes, and no trains at all to the following stations:
Yarm
Scarborough
Seamer
Malton
Selby
Brough
Hull
Some other Transpennine services will only have limited availability, these are as follows:
LNER have announced that only 38% of their trains will be running on all strike days.
There will be no services between Leeds, Harrogate, Hull, Skipton and Bradford Forster Square. The Leeds to London service will also be extremely limited with only one train every hour.
On strike days there will be one fast train per hour between Nottingham, Sheffield, Corby and London and one per hour on routes between Derby, Matlock, Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield. All other lines will be closed.
For more information and to view their timetable, click here.
Crosscountry
Crosscountry will also be running a very limited service with no road transport busses in replacement.
You can find more information and their timetable here.
She's big, she's green and she's ready to ruin your figure.
A lot of you will have seen the viral ‘Bertha’ cake by Leeds born beloved sweet treat specialists Get Baked.
They recently opened another site in Manchester's Northern Quarter, where queues literally formed round the block of hungry punters wanting to get their hands on the infamous sugary treats.
And now it's going to happen all over again, as they've recently unveiled their newest flavour which is sure to go down a storm.
We’ll give you a hint: it’s a current food and drink trend that’s about as big as Bertha herself – it’s not matcha, it’s not hot honey (duh), and it’s not Guinness…
Images: Get Baked
Yes—scratch that; HELL YES!Get Baked is set to welcome Bertha’s equally beautiful twin sister, and she’s officially a pistachio girlie.
Having started out life simply as ‘Bruce’, after taking inspiration from the iconic scene from Matilda, this thing has become a phenomenon in its own right, and who doesn’t like more flavours of a good thing?
Probably one of the biggest foodie crazes going at the minute, thanks to the popularity of pistachio cream, cookies, lattes and the similar social media sensation that is the ‘Dubai Pistachio Bar' people are rather fittingly going nuts for this particular flavour of almost absolutely anything.
With that in mind, the Leeds-born bakery and dessert shop – founded by Rich Myers over in Headingley back in 2011 – have shown no hesitation in hopping on the bandwagon and creating a new twist on their own viral menu item.
Teasing the full details in a post on their Instagram this week, they wrote: “What’s big, green, and is going to destroy your life in a couple of weeks’ time? Pistachio Bertha. Strictly limited to 5,000 slices. Coming oh so soon. GB.”
In case you were wondering just how mad those with a sweet tooth could possibly go for a slice of cake, just look at the recent queues when they finally launched in Manchester city centre:
Speaking on the grand opening here on our turf and his partner Amy’s hometown, Myers said simply: “Manchester, what a launch. Thanks for much for the warm welcome. Stay baked.”
Leeds Tattoo Expo to return to the First Direct Arena for 10th anniversary
Clementine Hall
The tenth annual Leeds Tattoo Expo will showcase some of the best in tattooing both local and internationally.
If you fancy getting yourself a fancy new bit of ink, then look no further than the iconic Leeds Tattoo Expo that will be returning to the First Direct Arena this June.
Taking place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June 2025, over 200 tattooists and 70 traders will be flocking to the city to show off their skills.
And not only that, but there’ll also be a whole host of market traders for you to browse as well as live music to have a boogie to.
The artists will be tattooing with options for both pre-booked appointments and walk ups available throughout the weekend.
Image: Leeds Tattoo Expo
There will also be a piercer, tooth gems and a henna artist ready to adorn your body.
Alongside getting tattooed, there’s plenty to do and to see over the whole weekend; there'll be an alternative drawing class, an illustrators market with kids’ workshops provided by Art Gecko, an art fusion event on the main stage, burlesque performances and competitions, a small vintage clothing pop-up, fire breathing and break dancing demonstrations in the square outside the arena.
The annual tattoo competitions will also be taking place each evening, where tattooists showcase their work to a panel of judges, sponsored by Killer Ink!
To celebrate Leeds Tattoo Expo's tenth anniversary, they'll be hosting a Pre-Party at Belgrave Music Hall on Thursday 5 June which is a completely free entry event complete with live music and free pizza.
You can find out more about the event and book your tickets here via the First Direct Arena's website.
Clementine Hall -
20th June 2022 
