RAIL passengers will have to find another way of getting to Birmingham tomorrow.

All Central Trains services from Worcester will be cancelled due to the latest walkout by guards.

Virgin Trains, also badly hit by the industrial action, will be running more services than during the last strike and will be operating a special timetable for its cross country route.

Thames Trains, which runs trains from Worcester to London Paddington, says it will maintain a normal timetable by replacing the strikers with other employees. The company only uses guards on 20 per cent of its services.

First Great Western will also operate a normal timetable after it struck a deal with RMT members.

Chiltern Railways, which operates between Kidderminster and Birmingham Snow Hill, Leamington Spa , Aylesbury and London Marylebone, will be unaffected by the strike, too.

RMT members began the one-day strikes on Friday, March 28, in a bid to have their safety role reinstated.

An RMT spokesman said that since privatisation, operators wanted to cut back their role to save money on training and dispense with guards altogether in the future.

A spokesman for the Midlands branch of the RMT said although the strikes had not succeeded in changing the employers' minds, they had been a success.

"They have had the desired effect of showing the solidarity of the senior conductors," he said.

Nick Brown, managing director of Central Trains, condemned the action.

"I am disappointed the RMT has chosen to cause disruption for thousands of passengers hoping to travel on Maundy Thursday, traditionally the busiest day of the year for rail travel," he said.

"The RMT does not need to call strikes while it is seeking to make changes to the rule book."