HUNDREDS of railway engineers in Hampshire are to be balloted over strike action in the run up to the Easter holidays.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union have confirmed they will ballot on Thursday on taking action over the axeing of 1,500 maintenance jobs by Network Rail.

The union’s 13,000 members will be joining some 2,000 workers from the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) who will also vote next week.

Any resulting strikes could start as soon as March 21 and will be the latest blow to rail passengers in the south following the closure of Southampton Central rail tunnel and St Denys railway bridge as part of a £71m scheme to increase freight trains from the city.

Union leaders have warned it is also likely to affect maintenance work on Southampton’s Central Bridge, which has been closed to road traffic for a year while Network Rail refurbish the Victorian bridge in a £4m project.

A spokesman for the RMT union said “We obviously regret any problems any action has for rail passengers in and around Southampton but the end result of the job losses Network Rail are planning could be much worse.”

“We have hundreds of members in the Southampton area where they are vital because of the large amount of freight travel. At the moment we don’t know details of any strike action or how long it will take place, but so far the feeling is that members will vote in favour for it,” he said.

RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow added: “We are balloting for a national strike because we know that the threat to axe jobs and compromise safety standards makes another Hatfield, Potters Bar or Grayrigg disaster on the UK rail network inevitable. I have no doubt that the British people will understand that you cannot take reckless gambles with rail safety in the name of “efficiency” and to hit financial targets on the bottom of a balance sheet.

TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty said: “I hope that we can avoid any disruption over the Easter break and I am calling on Network Rail to start serious discussions with us now to prevent that happening.”

RMT union members will ballot for strikes on Thursday and members of the TSSA will also start voting next week, with the result due on March 12.