Britney Spears fans warned over train strike ahead of Blackpool concert

Pop star's concert is expected to draw huge crowds

Britney Spears fans travelling to see the pop star perform in Blackpool on Saturday 1 September are being warned that they face disruption due to a train strike.

Members of the RMT union are staging a walkout for the second Saturday in a row, affecting Northern rail services in Lancashire, Cheshire and parts of Yorkshire.

The operator said "very few" trains would be running before 9am and after 6pm, and warned anyone travelling to the Britney concert and other events over the weekend to plan ahead.

General secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT has made every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but instead of making progress towards a settlement that matches the best practice in the rail industry as negotiated elsewhere, the company have opted instead to play fast and loose making a mockery of the exercise.

"German-owned Northern Rail want to run nearly half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately."

Spears will be performing during the opening weekend of this year's Blackpool Illuminations, and is expected to draw huge crowds.

Reviewing Spears' recent headline show at Brighton Pride, The Independent said: "Spears’s Piece of Me tour features 27 of her greatest hits. Considering the sheer volume of hit pop songs in her repertoire, from “…Baby One More Time” to “Toxic” and “Circus”, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that she is still only 36 and less than two decades into her career."

It added: "It is Spears’s strength and vulnerability in the face of her troubles that most endears her to her fans. She is instantly forgiven for things that would would normally sink other stars, such as her well-known aversion to live singing."

​Additional reporting by Press Association