A strike which would have crippled rail services from Brighton and Hove has been halted by a High Court injunction.
Network Rail won the order after it found discrepancies in the RMT union’s ballot for industrial action.
The strike would have seen signalworkers walk out from 6am to 10am and 6pm to midnight from Tuesday to Friday next week – and maintenance workers for the full four days.
Today, Judge Mrs Justice Sharp granted an interim injunction against the signallers’ strike after hearing the union had balloted some non-existent workplaces and not balloted some existing ones.
Southern had scheduled two trains an hour between Brighton and London Victoria and none after 6.3opm – but now it will be service as normal.
But the RMT’s general secretary Bob Crow said the union would reballot its members.