Staff who clean Virgin trains on the West Coast Main Line will stage a 24-hour strike today in a dispute over pay and union recognition.

More than 300 cleaners employed by Carlisle Cleaning and Support Services on the Virgin West Coast contract will also refuse to empty train effluent tanks or refill fresh water tanks for 48 hours from next Friday evening.

Cleaners work both at Wolverhampton rail station and at a depot in Oxley run by Alstom, which maintains the trains for Virgin.

Virgin Trains communications director Arthur Leathley said: “We don’t expect any disruption to services as a result of this dispute.

“We’re expecting services to run normally.”